The Enemy Within - Session 134

 25/1/26

The Tower of the Sun

 The party decide to rest in this large chamber with the circular stone table. They set guard shifts but leave out Farfordda as he goes back down the vast spiral stair to meditate in the hall below. As the sun goes down and the dim light fades they place their 2 Sunstones in a lantern and set it on the table. Amos takes the first shift. Norgrim and Thindra moan and turn in their sleep, the sounds echoing around the tower. This is clearly no place for Dwarves to rest.

Norgrim is exhausted when it comes to his turn, he takes some valerian to wake him. An hour into his shift he hears shrieking echoing down from above and wakes the others, but the bestial noise fades away. 

As sunlight filters down through the tower they all rise. Thindra takes the last of the Valerian, and they breakfast on their final day's rations. They should fetch their horses from the forest, but the dwarves ought not to step outside until they must, so Magdalena goes down the stairs to fetch Farfordda. He is still sat on the bottom step, deep in a trance. She wakes him. He is exhausted as he emerges from a night of intense holy visions.

He tells them that this is the Tower of the Sun, it is dedicated to Asuryan, head of the Elven pantheon ('Emperor of the Heavens', 'Keeper of Balance', the creator god), it was built over 4000 years ago, before Farfordda's people became Wood Elves, before the High Elf exodus. It was built during the War of the Beard, to keep watch over the Dwarven Kingdom of Karaz Ghumzul, to send messages to Kor Vanaeth. It was built by a Dragon riding Elf couple, Eltharion Pyrehand a warrior and Bellepheron Windcall, a wizard.

Kor Vanaeth was an elven settlement on a great river, its towers constructed over a powerful Arcane Fulcrum, a site of magical research, where Altdorf now stands. He saw its glittering towers toppled by the dwarves after an awful siege and the Tower of the Sun was thus cut off. The couple build another tower, a sister to this, the Tower of the Moon, dedicated to Lileath, goddess of the moon, patron of prophets and wife of Asuryan. This tower could communicate with Ulthuan, home of the Elves. 

He is in the room above, a council chamber, there are elves all around the great stone table and a fierce argument is taking place. The Dwarves of Karaz Ghumzul have ceded from the Karaz Ankor, the dwarven hegemon of the Old World. Eltharion believes it is the combined power of their two holy towers and the great Lorelorn beyond which has cowed the dwarves into submission. Belephron disagrees, she has had a vision, which sears into Farfordda's soul - the dwarves of Karaz Ghumzul have discovered a Chaos Gate deep beneath their holds, they cannot fight a war on two fronts and choose to face the greater threat. We should declare a truce and make common cause with the dwarves. The argument culminates in Eltharion banishing Belephron from the tower of the sun. It is at this point Magdalena woke Farfordda...

The pair of them leave the tower, out into a cold clear morning, the broken shape of Karak Skygg distinct and looming over the forest in the sharp autumnal air. They left the horses tied a quarter mile back in the trees, but all that's left of them are the savaged remains of Farfordda's horse (the one they borrowed from Chaplain Lader to pursue Ada's abductors three weeks ago). Farfordda intones a valediction and they return empty handed.

The party let Farfordda sleep for 3 hours before recommencing their exploration of the tower, hearing the bestial shrieking from above more than once in that time.

Up the stairs they go. The room above is the same size as the council chamber, its ceiling 20' from the ground, with a glass panel allowing light from above. The walls of the room are like a honeycomb of stones boxes or shelves. A rusted metal ladder hangs from a track above them. The lower shelves, like the room itself contain nothing but dust and the vague mulch worn down by time of whatever was once stored here. Farfordda tries climbing the ladder to look into the higher shelves, but abandons this when one of the steps breaks away.

The next floor is similar, only there are 3 stone tables here, no ladder and the shelves are not empty. Bottles, retorts, rusted metal stands and tongs pepper the stone boxes. Norgrim identifies some ancient lens working tools. There is more evidence of damp here, a little moss on the floor and walls. They decide its worth searching the higher boxes so Farfordda gets climbing. An hour or two yields a mortar full of crushed black opal and 3 rubies.

It is mid afternoon by the time they enter the floor above, the 4th above the ground. Although also 20' from floor to ceiling this one is a little different. For one the stairs do not continue on directly ahead after a 15' break, but rather start a quarter way back around the chamber and rise along its circumference with no banister or wall. In the center of the room is a shallow pool of foul smelling stagnant water, flies buzz above it, chunks of moss covered glass break the surface, and a mess of organic matter rises in the middle. 

The ceiling is missing the glass panel they've seen in every other room and reveals a shaft rising to the sky overhead. There are several decayed bodies laying close to the stairs and on the other side of the room lies a grubby metal structure, a little like that found in the council chamber below. The walls themselves are covered in moss, it looks as though huge paintings or tapestries may once have hung here, around these empty patches are fine knot-work of some much tarnished and overgrown metal. 

Magdalena and Thindra keep an eye on the exits as the others search. The metal structure is a large, but delicately made cage, like a bird cage, as tall as a human. Some careful scraping by Amos reveals it to be made of white-gold. Of the bodies, 2 are human and the other orc. Farfordda reckons the most recent is from the past year. Around them lie rotten rope, a crowbar, dagger, some coins and other burglar's tools. He cannot tell how they died.

Norgrim investigates the pool in the center. The water has clearly dripped down from above. A ragged set of ribs and a moss encrusted skull poke out from the organic mass. He sees an ornate but tarnished dagger in the gunge and then a ring, pristine and miraculously free of filth among the bones. Scooping it up he touches the bones, and all five of them freeze as a blood curdling howl echoes down from the shaft above. It is mid-afternoon on the 12th of Nachgeheim as some spectral shape coalesces thirty foot above them, screaming as it forms...

The Enemy Within - Session 133

9/1/26 

The Ruins of the Two Fingers

 The party rush for the ruined tower, Farfordda gets there first and starts hacking his way through the overgrown doorway with his axe. Magdalena drops her spear and draws her Liuye Dao as she runs, it makes short work of the thorny vegetation and along with the dwarves they get inside the tower before the flying swarms reach them.

The doorway gives entry to a room the entire width of the tower, it is choked with vegetation, every surface covered in moss and creepers, debris litters the ground, a precarious looking spiral staircase laps around the internal wall disappearing through an archway high above. Everything is lit in a dim green lit filtering through from a vegetation throttled hole in the ceiling. In the center of the room stands a dilapidated fountain, a 12' high crumbling elf maid tips an empty amphora from her shoulder. Also webs. There are big thick webs everywhere.

Before fully comprehending this vista the party are enveloped in webs discharged by two giant spiders far above. Farfordda is caught, and tries to free himself. Thindra and Amos release their crossbow bolts into the nearest one doing it awful damage. Norgrim tries lashing out with his whip but fumbles and shrieks in pain as he undoes all the results of his recent convalescence. The spiders scuttle back up the walls and through the archway above.

As the party gathers their breath and Farfordda extracts himself from the web they can hear the bird things squawking round the outside of the tower for a minute or two then dissipate. Thindra and Amos train their crossbows on the archway above as Magdalena and Norgrim search through the detritus and Farforrda climbs the stairs to get a better view of the room as a whole. 

Skulls, human, orc and animal are found along with a few weapons, coins and a Sigmarite pendant. It looks as though the walls may be decorated in fine script beneath all the creepers and moss. The tower is clearly High Elven in design, Norgrim reckons it could be as old as The War of Vengeance.

They take a look back out the doorway. The swarms are gone, but mist has gathered, the other tower can be seen clear enough but the mountains in the background and even the trees fringing the clearing have disappeared into the white. 

Farfordda exams the door on the other tower with the telescope, he can make out delicate decorative swirls beneath the vines and creepers but no keyhole or handle. 

After much deliberation they decide to head up the stairs, Norgrim first. As he hacks his way through the web choked doorway he is smothered in web projected from above, binding him to the spot. One great spider drops down to take a bite at him, Farfordda manages to hit it with an arrow. There is more struggling and web discharged, Magdalena tries to cut Norgrim out, injuring him in the process, and one set of venomous mandibles manage to make contact before the party retreat back down the vertiginous spiral with a sticky, lightly wounded Norgrim. 

They rest some and think again. Time to try the door of the other tower. 

Farfordda sprints across the gap between the towers. There is no pulse, all is calm, though Magdalena can just about hear a high pitched screeching from high above. Farfordda clears the creepers from the door's surface, Detect Artifact reveals that the door is magical, and locked - but his Open Lock spell does the trick. It glides inwards, revealing a vast chamber like that in the ruined tower but in good condition. He motions to the others to follow and heads inside. 

Magdalena rushes across the empty space, but as soon as Amos' dwarven feet touch the ground he sees the sorcerous pulse emanate from the full tower once more. They all sprint, hearing the birds squawking and shrieking in the depths of the mist.

The atmosphere in the tower is still. Although there is some moss, and a little damp and detritus from once organic constructions, the interior is much like it would have been several thousand years ago. The walls are covered in fine eleven script of inlaid silver. There is no water in the fountain, but the statue is complete, and like its ruined sister all is bathed in a soft green light from above. Here it is easier to tell that there is a circular glass panel set into the highly polished pale stone ceiling.

They climb the stairs and enter a great web free chamber, this time with a crossbow bearing Amos on point. Like the floor below this is one vast chamber faintly lit by green light from above, though maybe half as high and with its spiral stairs sheathed behind a stone curtain. A great circular stone table is it's dominant feature, followed by a huge silver housing, like a giant lantern or vast bracket lying in the center of the room, presumably having fallen a long, long time ago from the ceiling above. The party take a breather. It is late afternoon on the 11th of Nachgeheim a few hours before sunset...

 

The Enemy Within - Session 132

 2/1/26

The Trail of Death

 The party push on up the trail. Going at Norgrim's belaboured pace they are confidant the orcs will stay ahead of them. The mist restricts visibility for the whole day and they camp, still some way behind the orcs, in the forested valley of the Sturmtaal. 

They wake to heavy rain, the mist has cleared to a stormy sky and they can see Karak Skygg in the distance behind them and catch occasional glimpses of the Two Fingers looming out of the forest ahead.
By mid morning they leave the valley of the Sturmtaal and embark on the trail over the hill which should eventually lead to Lindenheim, the route they took in reverse some 2 weeks ago. 

An hour or two up the trail and Amos spots faint, purple wisps of Shyish off to their left. He and Farfordda investigate, finding a sword among the undergrowth (the twin tailed comet carved in the pommel) and signs of a struggle which they follow to a tree, where a corpse slumps in the branches. 

Farfordda climbs up and pushes the corpse out. It is Jakan Trum, the filthy, suspicious trapper they met in Oberholzbek, the body bears hideous gashes to the torso and arms and looks like its been here for at least several days. They find a crude map and a telescope in his pockets, then moments later hear sounds from the trail ahead. 

They just manage to get the horses deeper into the forest in time, with Norgrim calming them as best he can as a party of Orcs come crashing down the hill. One of them shoulders a great beast's head on his back, all are heavily armed and thunder past oblivious to the party. 

They wait a while then leave the corpse and head on. The storm rages all day long. They are not far from the Two Fingers, and thinking to make camp soon when Amos once more spies traces of Shyish drifting through the trees, heavier this time. Once again he, Farfordda and Thindra investigate while the others look after the horses. 

In a clearing they find a shallow cave gouged from a rock face and a scene of carnage. There are signs of struggle all around and the cave contains a number of bodies. There's an orc, several humans and 2 skaven, not to mention the bones and remains of many animals. But the biggest corpse is that of a huge, decapitated and mutated Griffon. Its wings are horrifically seared, almosty burnt off and a gaping hole in its flank is ringed with tiny mouths, reminiscent of the wound on Baron Holzbek. It reeks of corruption, the body also displays corrupted musket shot wounds, as though shot with warpstone.

They leave the grisly scene and push on another mile or so to camp.

The storm eases off to be replaced once more by thick mist. Another fire-less camp. On his shift late in the night Norgrim hears distant drums from back the way they have come. The next morning is cold and clear.

They reach the clearing with the Two Fingers by mid morning, leaving the horses tied up a quarter mile back before they scrambled up the final steep slopes of ancient woodland. The two towers rise from a wide clearing, 100' of ground clear ground surrounds them, and they sit 100' apart. 

One tower is just over 200' tall, and the other partially ruined is about 3/4 of that. White stone covered in ivy and creepers over most of their height, with the lower parts sunk into brambles and bracken. 

They do a circuit of the clearing without leaving the shelter of the trees, inspecting the towers with Jakan's telescope. The ruined tower has an overgrown and empty doorway, the only windows on either tower start more than half way up, there are 3 floors with 2 groups of 2 windows oriented in different directions on each floor. The full tower although complete looks like it may be roofless with vegetation growing from the top, it also features 2 balconies on the top floor, one facing east, the other west, both with what appear to be ivy smothered statues on them. Subtle traces of the winds of magic eddy around the full tower.  

They break the treeline to better investigate and as they do so Farfordda and Amos see a pulse of magic emanate from the full tower. They hear the squawking of birds and shrieks of animals as it passes out into the forest around. As they close in on the towers they see that there is a door on the full tower, flush with the white walls and obscured by vines and brambles. 

Four swarms of tiny bird-things come bursting from the treeline and the party rush for the overgrown entrance to the ruined tower. It is late morning on the 11th of Nachgeheim, cold and clear and 13 days before Geheimnistag...

WFRP 4e House Rules

Opposed Rolls

Essentially a simplification on the 4e rules.

• If both parties succeed at the skill test, the party with the highest roll wins
• If both parties fail, the party with the lowest roll wins 
• If Success Level is required use the value of the tens die
• If both failed the winner's Success Level = 0

Example

Magdalena is locked in melee combat with Sir Vaksman. She is armed with a sword and has Melee(Basic) 69, Sir Vaksman is not quite so great, also armed with a sword he's got Melee(Basic) 54. Round 1 Magdalena gets a 52 and Sir Vaksman rolls a 17. Both have rolled under their respective skill values, but Magdalena's roll being higher means she wins, and as its a 52 that equals 5 Success Levels, meaning +5 Wounds damage. Brutal. Round 2 she gets a 71 and he a 58, both fail, but as Sir Vaksman's roll is lower he wins the round, though with no Success Levels, so no modifier to damage.

Rationale

Combat in WFRP involves way too much arithmetic for me, I find it can be overwhelming when there's a lot of combatants and slows everything down. This system is functionally the same as the rules as written, but does away with having to subtract dice roll from Skill value to determine Success Levels which then have to be compared before the SL is applied. Simply compare dice rolls, if both succeed the highest roll wins with the tens die being used for the SL. So fast and elegant.

My only reticence with this is that we've been playing percentile game systems for so long that our reactions to low dice rolls are virtually Pavlovian. I changed Criticals from being on doubles to rolls of 01-3 for that reason, and although we're sticking with that we'll just need see how we got on with any dissonance caused by this new change.

I came across this opposed resolution mechanic in an Idle Cartulary review of the Horror game Fear & Panic. I'd been planning to write and post this since making the change, then the other day I was watching Seth Skorkowsky's enticing review of Delta Green and he mentioned that it uses this mechanic too, with the added wrinkle that in the case of fails the lowest wins. This detail somehow feels more satisfying to me than Fear and Panic's highest fail wins. We'll see how it all feels after some proper usage, which hopefully the next few game sessions should provide...  

Melee Combat: Polearms

All Polearm weapons (except for Quarterstaff) can be used at a range of 1, i.e. they can be used to attack an opponent who is 2m (1 square) away and thus not in base-base contact.

Melee Combat: Reloading

Reloading a weapon while adjacent to an opponent automatically grants initiative to the opponent along with 1 point of Advantage should they wish to attack you immediately (which you can only oppose with Dodge). Note the opponent does not gain an extra attack from this, it simply alters the initiative order and gives them advantage.

 

 

The Enemy Within - Session 131

22/12/25

Into the Mountains

The party decide to stay at Dunfurter another day to give Norgrim more time to recover from his broken ribs. Mid morning a wagon, a carriage bearing the Karzburdger coat of arms, 4 mounted soldiers and a messenger arrive at the Castle. Kepler Karzburdger is here with his wife. Magdalena accosts them in the great hall, introducing herself to his wife, Lady Titia. Kepler is mostly cordial, there are no blackmail threats but he doesn't stay chatting for long. 

Farfordda meets with one of the other travelers in the castle garden - Imelda Van Haffner, Green Wizard of the Hochland College of Sorcery, she traveled to Holzbek with Count Von Ludenhof, they had seen though not spoken to her at the reading of the will. Apparently Kepler had brought her here along with the 4 soldiers to collect the hunting dogs bequeathed to the Count. She is eager to hear what Farfordda can tell her, obviously knowing that he and the gang rescued Ada and asks him about Middenheim where she hears they have been. 

Farfordda tells her of the ratmen, and their cult in the city - how they went there to track down their friend Blitzen, but he had been captured by them as was their friend Professor Eunice. The nearby village of Unterfaus was abducted by these ratmen just a few days ago and now the party intend to travel to an old dwarf hold in the mountains occupied by the ratmen to rescue their friends. It is likely the ratmen will threaten Hochland too before long. 

Imelda says she had intended to try employ their skills for her master, to slay Gazrin One-horn, but it sounds like they are busy enough. She can tell Farfordda little of Holzbek save that she knows Lady Eisenhal left and tensions in the town run high. She then inquires more directly after Middenheim having heard queer things about it lately. Farfordda tells her the aristocracy have been thoroughly infiltrated by a chaos cult, that the so called Inquisition is effectively an arm of it and that they murdered both the elfs at court, relating which detail upsets him. Once more in charge of himself he asks Imelda if she will help teach him some magic and she consents, so they spend the remainder of the day at work in the garden (learning Entangle). 

Amos spends his day in the library, vainly scouring books for useful information on the mountains and Norgrim takes it easy, attempting to train his dog in between resting. 

Magdalena seeks out Meyer - he tells her the latest from the town; Lady Eisenhal managed to turn the wealthy against Magistrate Allman, making out that it was her dereliction which endangered the lives of the Holzbeks - these agitators in her town that she had failed to deal with. Lady Eisenhal left for Sohk with Duke Immelscheid and his troops days ago. Von Reiter has managed to capture one of the arsonists - part of some revolutionary group from Middenheim. Tensions in the town are high. Meyer will leave for there as soon as he feels Ada is settled in here. Among those who arrived today is Frau Martinez the Estalian housekeeper of Holzbek Manor, until he can find Ada a tutor he will entrust her with Ada's care. 

Magdalena tells him she and her associates intend to head for the ruins of the Two Fingers, they plan to take on the ratmen who abducted the inhabitants of Unterfraus and seek useful intelligence to that end. Meyer warns her that his lack of knowledge regarding the Two Fingers is a reflection of how deadly it might be. He wishes she would stay and lead forces to help stabilize the region, he needs the Unterfraus mine producing ore again as soon as possible. Perhaps they could destroy the great Orc monument on their journey to the Two Fingers, that would boost the morale of the people? 

She warns him do not try resettle Unterfraus without serious military force, and that destroying a symbol would offer only false hope. They will return here after visiting the Two Fingers before heading for the ratmen stronghold. She asks him to have a note sent to Oberholzbek informing any dwarves who arrive there that Magdalena and her dwarves can be reached here at Dunfurter. As she makes to leave he tells her that he knows she is a wanted fugitive in Middenheim and while others might seek to use that fact against her there is nothing but gratitude and respect for her here in the Barony of Holzbek.

Finally they leave on the cold morning of the 8th Nachgeheim. Magdalena in parting from Ada sets her a task to train Norgrim's dog while she is gone, she expects to return in a week. Then they ride out. They make good time, following the long glen north east up into the mountains, then dismount to turn north west over the rough route that leads up behind what the Oberholzbekers call 'The Shoulder'. It is near dusk when they make camp at the shallow cave their goblin prey camped at a two weeks ago.

Next morning they head on, it is cold and damp and mist gathers thickly, obscuring all. They hope to reach the head of the Kleiflusch valley by dark and camp in the forest a few miles east of the Two Fingers. Mid morning they spy the route which curves off around the Shoulder to the Red Tusk monument, and although they can see neither that or the peaks around them Farfordda and Amos spy clear fresh tracks, coming from the direction of the monument and traveling in the same direction as they. Seven Orcs passed this way an hour or so ago... 

The Enemy Within - Session 130

 13/12/25

Deliberations

 We rewind to Magnus Rest at the start as Karwel got forgotten about last session. Farfordda says his goodbyes to him and they agree to leave messages for each other here at the inn (addressed to Thindra) and Coppershiners in Middenheim, just in case. Before heading on for Dunfurter they also hear from the other travelers present that the Graf's huntsman, the elf Allavandrel, was killed in a hunting accident - some say it wasn't an accident, that really he was a spy for Marrisith the Queen of Laurelorn.

We snap forwards to the morning of the 5th. The party awake at Dunfurter, Magdalena from disturbing dreams that rob her of a restful night. At breakfast Meyer tells them a rider arrived from the inn a short while ago, apparently a hunter arrived at Unterfraus yesterday to find the village empty, there were many signs of struggle but only a few corpses. As the party plan to weather out the next day or two here at the castle, recovering and planning, Meyer sends Ulman the hunstman and a posse of men-at-arms to Unterfraus to investigate, brother Holsenheimer goes with them to perform last rites.

Otherwise the party mostly rest, Magdalena plays with Ada a little and receives some healing (from the housekeeper), Amos studies his book on engineering and has the blacksmith alter a chain-mail hauberk to fit him, Thindra hangs with the blacksmith and Norgrim rests and moves as little as possible to speed recovery of his broken ribs. They weigh up their options, should they head straight up the Taub to try reach Karak Skygg, maybe trying to find Ingrid the hermit near the ford, or make for the ruins of the Two Fingers first? Farfordda consults the Tarot; is Mariposa at the Two Fingers? Maybe. 

The following afternoon Ulman and crew return from Unterfraus with some gruesome details. The body of the Ulrican priest was found tied to the altar, likely tortured to death. In a barn an upturned cart looked like it had been used as some kind of operating table, a gelatinous pile of eyes being found beneath it and 2 dead, eyeless villagers in a corner. 

From the tracks it looked like the villagers had been herded into the mine, then the main tunnel demolished with explosives. A bloodied skaven knife was found in one of the houses. Meyer knows little of the Skaven, to him they're just another brand of Beastmen and Unterfraus is just another problem on his teetering plate of troubles.

Farfordda consults the Tarot again, once more asking if Mariposa is at the Two Fingers. This time he gets what he considers to be a more conclusive answer - no. The party decide they will travel there regardless, perhaps they can find something to aid them with their infiltration of Karak Skygg. 

From the castle Farfordda manages to acquire a bear trap, 2 fighting nets and 3 flasks of oil. Tomorrow, 7th Nachgeheim they will head into the mountains...

The Enemy Within - Session 129

 6/12/25

Back on the Road 

Looking through the bedroom windows, back into the inner courtyard, Farfordda can see the fire is spreading throughout the ground floor. He leaves the room and drops down into the courtyard as one of the Eisenhal guards rushes in - where is sir Vaksman, where is Ada! 

Magdalena takes a sheet from the bed and uses it to lower Ada down to Farfordda. He carries her out into the yard where Lady Eisenhal calls out in apparent relief. Amos is up now and has entered the courtyard with his crossbow - Farfordda tells him look after Ada and goes back for Magdalena. Amos blocks Lady Eisenhal from getting to hug her niece. 

Another Eisenhal guard barks wheres Vaksman at Magdalena as she climbs down into the courtyard - up there she gestures. The building is well ablaze now, some of the dozen horses in the courtyard have panicked and fled. Bells ring out as townsfolk join the fight against the blaze - though shouts of burn the nobles are heard sporadically.

Magdalena tells Lady Eisenhal to go to the Meissen house - then heads to the temple of Verena with Ada and Amos,Von Reiter passes them on his way to the blaze - she gives him a quick summary of what actually happened. Farfordda takes the remaining horses to the stables at the Roaming Pint whilst a bleary eyed Norgrim and Thindra get their possessions out of the burning building.

At the temple of Verena Magdalena relates the story to Meyer, that she dispatched Sir Vaksman after he attempted to murder her and Ada. He says Sir Vaksman would never do anything without Lady Eisenhal's say so, maybe says Magdalena, but Elena seemed distressed on Ada's account. Farfordda arriving at the temple proposes that the key question is whether Vaksman started the fire or merely took advantage of it. Meyer thinks on balance that they should still leave the town first thing in the morning and get Ada to the safety of the castle. He heads out to the fire to find Von Reiter. 

Frau Allman arrives shortly after Meyer leaves - Amos had dropped by to get her on his way back to the fire. Magdalena tells her story of the night for the third time (once more leaving out the details of Farfordda's spellcasting), making no accusations. The implication of Lady Eisenhal's knight attempting to murder Ada could not be more serious. Farfordda asks who else at the meal the other night would have had reason to try murder Ada? Could Vaksman have been in league with another? Everyone at the meal would have backed Middenheim over Hochland. With Meyer and the party leaving in the morning it will all be left to Magistrate to deal with.

Amos returns to the temple with Norgrim, Thindra and their gear. Magdalena receives some first aid and crashes out. Norgrim and Thindra head back into the night to help fight the fire - the building burns to the ground, but the fire does not spread.

Before sleeping Farfordda consults the Tarot. Was Lady Eisenhal involved in the attempted murder? Maybe.

After a couple of hours sleep they are roused by the temple staff. A simple breakfast is laid out and a carriage and wagon have been prepped for the journey. Norgrim's injuries are attended by a temple acolyte while Farfordda drops by the Roamer's pint to speak with Karwel. He tells him about the attempted murder. Karwel is clearly concerned and tells Farfordda that he has learned the murder the other night, of Reinaut Scheffers, was almost certainly performed by a Middenheim spy, likely on orders from Baron Todbringer. Does this change his willingness to go help the Baron? He will still go given the severity of everything that has been relayed to him, but he is less sure and perhaps will not tarry for long. 

Shortly after sunrise the party leave for Dunfurter. Magdalena travels in the carriage with Ada, Meyer and Brother Holsenheimer, the Dwarves ride on the outside, a wagon brings supplies for the castle, 20 mounted men-at-arms accompany them and Farfordda scouts ahead. 

They reach Magnus Rest by late afternoon, the Inn has resupplied since last they were here and having been warned of the imminent arrival of Steward Meyer and Lady Ada's party food and drink await them. Farfordda takes the opportunity to speak with his compatriots in private, telling them what he learned from the Strigany, that something will be coming for him on Grunsnacht. 

The Innkeep accosts them at their table saying he suspected they were all together, so they rescued Lady Ada, eh? You kept that quiet - what happened with young Axel, did you find him? His father's funeral took place yesterday.

Norgrim is reunited with his dog Carnac, Thindra loads up their wagon and they all leave for Dunfurter, making good time they arrive an hour after dark on 4th Nachgeheim, its is cold and windy on the edge of the mountains...