The Enemy Within - Session 124

26/10/2025

The Mark

 Frau Allman leaves to deal with the aftermath of the murder, saying she will provide accommodation for Magdalena and impressing on everyone that they do all they can to keep the peace in her town. 

Once the main course is finished Lady Eisenhal asks Magdalena what she thinks about Ada - can't she see that the girl should be fostered in Sohk, she was raised on a farm, she has neither the etiquette or knowledge to deal with a noble life. Magdalena says what's most important is that she is safe. Baron Todbringer asks what she thinks of the girl's character, has she the making of a Baroness? Magdalena says she doesn't know but the girl has showed resilience in the face of adversity and terrible circumstances. 

Baron Todbringer - Cubicle Seven TPBTT

 The priest of Ulric stresses again that the Baron's body should be laid out in the Shrine to Ulric not in the Sigmar Temple. Lady Eisenhal says she'll deal with it, the last thing she would want is more chaos in the town. She asks Artur, Duke of Immelscheid to have his troops standing by in case there is any trouble at the reading of the Will. Karwell repeats that they should all they can to resolve this situation in as peaceful a way possible, listing the troubles that beset the Empire.

When the meal ends Von Reiter appears and speaks with Lady Eisenhal in private. Magdalena gets changed and goes to head for The Bad Pfennig when a coach pulls up outside - it is from the Meisson family and has been sent to take her to their house where she can stay. As she boards it she sees Von Reiter leaving the house. Lady Eisenhal has agreed to have the Baron laid out in the Temple of Sigmar so he is going there now to organise having the body moved. He knows little about the murder and does not let it deviate him from his tasks. She leaves a note at Holzbek Manor for the gang saying where she's headed and telling Farfordda that Karwel can be found in room 10 at The Roamer's Pint.

basis generated from https://watabou.itch.io/village-generator

 Back at the Bad Pfennig as soon as the word goes around that a body has been found close by, Valeria's companion Schmidt makes a sharp exit. Now free of her companion Amos manages to get out of Valeria that she's not so much an ally of Gaius but rather a smuggler who runs errands and that Gauis' contact at the picket (who she delivered a letter to) is one Sergeant Brantner. 

In the background a drunk Norgrim having lost at darts is bellowing that he is Norgrim Reaper, pit fighting champion who beat Morgan the Mauler in Kemperbad. An even drunker Thindra amplifies this - Norgrim Reaper Baby Eater, also known as the bear! Some local says he should go fight Jolly Joss the current bare knuckle boxing champion at The Pit.

Farfordda enters with Kezia who leads him to the table where her elder sister reads the tarot. He settles down and buys them a bottle of wine and matches her cards on the table by spreading out his own. She notices that like his hand there is a digit missing. The Emperor he says - how appropriate says she, some say the Emperor is ill, that no one has seen him in an age. A few verbal exchanges soon lead her to invite him to come meet their Petru, Uriah and they get up and leave.

They exit the tavern just as a short minstrel enters announcing that he has come to find the dwarves who helped the Knight rescue Lady Holzbek, there is much laughter as he heads straight for Thindra and Norgrim who are loudly proclaiming their feats on the far side of the bar. Before reching them he spots Amos - who he walked alongside on the road from Hohenfarht to Lindenheim - It was yous who saved the girl! I thought you were taking that sick prisoner to Hope Square - where did you meet the knight?  

Amos sets to getting Luther drunk and distracting him from any connection between the prisoner and the knight, sharing the free beer they're being served for Norgrim having buried Mortimer Rumster. 

Then the watch enter. The gammon faced sarge starts questioning the clientele while a bear of young watchman with a black eye blocks the exit. 

 Were you in here earlier, did you see a well dressed gentleman with long red hair and a neatly trimmed beard? A drunken Thindra says yes, and I saw him before at Felangst Castle! All 3 Dwarves troop out with the watch and head to their barracks to identify the body.

Holzbek - courtesy ChatGPT & Imogen 4

 

The Strigany camp, 3 caravans drawn up around a fire, is out the east gate in the Ostrasse, close to The Pit. Uriah, a cracked leather faced Strigany with young eyes, dyed black hair and a bone ring through his nose bids Farfordda enter. His caravan stinks of sulfur and cinnamon, a pot boils on a hob at the back. The place is stuffed with beakers, jars and dark bottles, herbs and small creatures hang from every part of the ceiling. 

Farfordda says he has traveled with the Strigany, Uriah makes plain that he has heard of him, and that he can see 'the mark' upon him - for a small price he can inspect it, he'll require some blood though. 

Farfordda says he wants a parlay - he had a run in with Mariposa, he wants to talk. What did you do to Mariposa asks Uriah, to have her put the mark on you?

 Back and forwards they talk. He knows that Wittgenstein castle collapsed into the Reik, but not how or why. Beatsmen, Skaven and mutants were all involved in the chaos there says Farfordda, the castle contained a lump of Weirdstone the size of a house. But what did you do? He had been hunting down a Chaos Witch called Etelka Herzen. Lady Wittgenstein got blown up. That can't be it thinks Uriah. What was Mariposa doing there? Uriah admits she is a friend, but he hasn't seen her since the last great gathering a few years ago - she is a powerful Petru though admittedly with some crack brained schemes. 

Farfordda eventually relents and gives Uriah a thimble of blood from his thumb. He mixes it with Dreamwine and grave dust, boils it then drinks. There can be no parlay. The mark is faded but Farfordda's doom will come next Grunsnacht - some great monster, likely undead will find him. Can the mark be erased? No but it will fade if Mariposa fails to find him in his dreams before then. There is something else too, something other than his taint, but Uriah can't quite make it out. 

 Mariposa had the remains of an Old Father - the vampire overlords who ruled the Strigany back in Strigos millennia ago. Likely she sought Lady Wittgenstein's help to bring it back. There are some among the Strigany who think bringing back the Old Fathers would free them from their wanderings, let them reclaim their ancestral home. Uriah is not so keen on the idea, he might think ill of the Emperor Karl Fanz, but he surely can't be worse than an ancient vampire. Mariposa has long worked at this scheme. Thwarting this would certainly focus Mariposa's ire.

 Their caravan was bound for Middenheim, but Uriah has heard ominous tidings and so may travel south to Talabheim instead. Farfordda tells him Middenheim is not safe, that it is the hands of a chaos cult known as the Purple Hand who infiltrated the aristocracy of the city right up to the Graf himself. Uriah thanks him for the information and says he has potions for sale should the elf have enough coin. Farfordda says he'll return before he quits Holzbek and leaves.

At the watch HQ a drunken Thindra confirms the body is indeed the Nordlander noble she saw at Felangst with Kepler Von Karzburdger. The watch send out to fetch him. Norgrim chats to Axel - the huge young watchman who was with the sarge. He and Amos tell Axel that his father was killed by a giant rat down the mine which they in turn slew. That his father's funeral is imminent and that his mother is moving to Gladbeich to join her recently widowed sister - oh yeah your Uncle was recently hung in a case of mistaken identity, this bounty hunter Lars and these 2 road wardens thought he was the notorious bandit Heinz Gerber. He remembers Lars coming to Oberholzbek - he's gonna kill that guy. 

 The dwarves decide to head on to The Pit, maybe Norgrim can get in that fight with Jolly Joss - the sarge tells them be careful - the place is hoaching with Lubrecht scum (local crime family) and mercenaries. They troop off and leaving the east gate run into Farfordda leaving the Strigany camp. 

The Pit is packed and but they spot a couple of faces they recognise. Jean Saunier, Gilbert Eisenhal's tutor is chatting with some young women, Domu Petraska stands at the bar with a monkey on his shoulder engaged in conversation with a rough looking local and in the eponymous  pit at the rear of this barn Amos sees the writer from the team of mummers they saw back in Lindenheim, the hulking woman who wore the Red Crown ring. She's entertaining an unsavoury crowd who hang on her every word. 

Meanwhile Magdalena spends her evening at the Meissen residence, as she enters this well appointed town house she spies Kepler leaving the house next door - Frau Allman's, with a member of the watch. 

The Meissens are a wealthy merchant family. After being shown the room they have cleared for her she is invited to the drawing room for tittle tattle over sherry. She tells the tale of her Ada saving adventure for the umpteenth time and shortly after a watchman arrives at the door - Von Reiter has sent him to bring her to the Watch HQ. She heads out into the damp, cold and foggy streets. It is near 11 o'clock on the 2nd of Nachgeheim...

 

The Enemy Within - Session 123

18/10/2025

A Table for Seven

Magdalena is called in for dinner. Von Reiter having just read the broadsheet the dwarves brought and seeing it say that the Baron's body will be laid out in state decides to head to the temple of Sigmar to actually make this so, feeling he can as the PCs are here to hold the fort. He tells the servants to make up beds for them and leaves. 

Farfordda retires to the stables to do the Tarot. Is the strigany woman who read Norgrim's future in league with Mariposa? A strong hand with a Joker tells him no.

The dwarves eat with the guards in the courtyard - they are the same men-at-arms that were with Von Reiter at Oberholzbek so Amos take the opportunity to ask them about Axel Muller. Oh yeah that kid - built like a bull - Von Reiter drafted him into the town watch - he did them proud at the battle with Ulkin Blackheart, be a waste having the boy rot in a jail when the town needs every loyal soldier it can get. Norgrim asks him to tell Axel that his mother is having his father's funeral then moving to Gladbeich to live with her recently widowed sister. Then they head to the Bad Pfennig.

Magdalena enters the dining room dressed in her yellow dress and carrying a Blazing Suns sheild as a gift for Ada. She is introduced to Frau Allman the town magistrate (and effectively the mayor), Duke Immelcheid and Wolf-born Erich Heinlein the priest of Ulric. They ask Magdalena about her adventure rescuing Ada, she tells them the truth leaving out her initial captivity and stressing that the abduction was carried out by bandits disguised as Sigmarite pilgrims. 

The monocle wearing wizard Karwel Eyrich after having inspected the Baron's corpse descends the stairs to join them, then some half an hour late Baron Heinrich Todbringer makes his entrance. 

Ada and Gilbert are presented to the Baron and Magdalena gives her sheild to Ada saying that it is a symbol of  the protection afforded her from Myrmidia and the Order of the Blazing Suns.

Once the childfren leave Heinrich shows them the broadsheet - what is this! - Baron Holzbek is to be laid out in the temple of Sigmar. The Ulrican priest is furious, Elena says this is not her doing, she does not know how this can have come to pass, it will be dealt with. 

The starters arrive and afterwards Heinrich addresses them - strife abounds, the empire creaks on the brink of civil war - old alliances must be maintained, the Barony of Holzbek must not become part of Hochland. Elena stresses that Ada must be taken somewhere safe - she would raise her in the castle at Sohk. All press on Magistrate Allman that regardless of the will's outcome the alliance with Middenheim should take precedence and Ada be raised in Middenland. 

Heinrich says he must travel back to Middenheim tomorrow after the reading of the will. His eyes and ears in Middenheim have grown silent and he is worried, but he will do all that he can to support Lady Eisenhal's cause.

Magdalena also talks with Karwel - he recognises her from the coach to Middenheim when they were travelling to the carnival - did they find their friend? He did not realise that she was with the elf Farfordda, she says they should talk and he agrees to afterwards. He tells Heinrich that he was investigating a Nordland Separatist plot - he was invited to the Conclave by Count Jurgen Karzburdger to try keep his feckless son out of trouble, he visited Dunfurter on route and as a result traveled here with Lady Eisenhal's entourage. This evening was his opportunity to meet Heinrich. Magdalena mentions that she unhorsed Kepler at the Jousting, bravo says the Artur Duke of Immelscheid, he missed that day at the jousting but had heard a female knight had beaten Kepler.

Half way into the main course they are interrupted by the commander of the watch who tells the magistrate there has been a murder in the town...

Amos, Norgrim and Thindra run into Valeria Roth in The Bad Pfennig. Norgrim goes off to drink and drunkenly loses a wager at darts while Amos chats with Valeria. She has sold all of her ale and looking to buy up some Taalwater and heading for Altdorf - her associate here is telling her The Pit is the place to go. Amos asks her who were the people she sold the ale too back at Magnus Rest - were they friends of Gauis? She looks askanse at her companion and says yes - she claims not to know where they were going or who they were though.

Farfordda finally leaves the stables and heads for The Bad Pfennig keeping an eye out for Strigany. As luck would have it he spots young Kazia, she makes a beeline to him - will he buy a plague charm - he answers her in Strigany, paying her and asking can she read fortunes - she says no but her sister can and so leads him to The Bad Pfennig.

They arrive and spot the dwarves, just as a murmer runs around the tavern - a body has been found a few streets away, there's been a murder... 

The Enemy Within - Session 122

 08/10/2025

The Reunion 

Amos joins Norgrim in The Bad Pfennig where Thindra is reunited with them shortly after. They exchange stories of their journeys apart over ale. Amos successfully spreads gossip about how he and another dwarf helped this knight of Myrmidia rescue the Baron's daughter. Norgrim pays a Strigany woman 6d to tell the future for him - has the Baron's assassin left town already? He draws 2 Jokers and a Jack! Taciana Petraska has a rare insight - yes! He was killed by Gazrin one-horn, the terrible corrupted wound took his life.

Magdalena and Farfordda arrive at Holzbek Manor. Sir Gerhard Von Reiter ushers them into the yard and speaks with them out of sight - he is glad to see them, Lady Eisenhal has taken command of the house, Ada is with her son Gilbert upstairs and never out of the sight of her knight. Von Reiter is out of his depth, he is a warrior not a diplomat. Steward Meyer has been sent for, but is unlikely to arrive for some time yet - thinking of it he sends out men to meet him part way now. Brother Holsenheiner, the Priest of Morr is with the Baron's body - he wants to burn it, Von Reiter objects - this would be an unfitting send of for his liege lord.

They go upstairs and speak with Holsenheiner - Norgrim had told him the story of how they rescued Ada but not who she was, he has since put it altogether. He showed them the Baron's abdomen wound - a gaping bloodless gash clustered with spherical nodules like cysts, shifting in colour through pink to blue. Sometimes they blink he said. And they are spreading. Farfordda agrees to persuade Von Reiter to have the corpse burnt.

They get Von Reiter to send for the dwarves who arrive not long after (in the intervening time Thindra spots a northern noble she recognizes from Felangst in the bar and on the way over they pick up a newly printed broadsheet about the Baron's death - at the same time as the clock tower was struck apparently - 2 minutes to midnight, also it says he'll be laid out in state in the temple of Sigmar). 

Magdalena manages to convince Von Reiter that they should burn the Baron here in the town, he agrees so long as they perform all of the appropriate ceremonies first in the temple of Sigmar. Then he arranges an audience for them with Lady Eisenhal - they want to see Ada. Farfordda announces Magdalena to Lady Eisenhal in the manor library. She thanks them for rescuing her niece, then calls in her Knight. They spar politely, she tells them she thinks this place is not safe for her niece, on the borderlands with her fathers killer still out there. The party say their services are for hire- then ask to see Ada and Elena has her brought. Ada is over joyed to see the them and introduces her cousin Gilby. Lady Eisenhal is not keen in having them all play in the yard, but she is expecting guests so must leave them - Magdalena manages to invite herself to this dinner, the others can meantime have the run of the house but Ada stays up here.

They retreat down to the kitchen to wash up. It is nearly 7 and the first dinner guests are expected when a visitor arrives calling on Magdalena - word has got around town that Lady Holzbek's saviour is here. It is Kepler Von Karzburdger who Magdalena unhorsed at the jousting at the Middenheim Carnival. He takes her to one side and makes plain he knows that it was she who was in that prison wagon bound for Hope Square, wouldn't Middenheim love to know that? He is not invited to this dinner but perhaps they could have dinner together tomorrow?

Session ends 7:30 on 2nd Nachgeheim, dinner is about to be set...