The Enemy Within - Session 107

17/01/2025

Gaius

 Amos returns to the Inn and wakes Thindra - they accost Gaius, who is drying himself by the fire - Amos buys him a pint but he is standoffish - saying only really that he is passing through on the way north. 

Gaius from The Horned Rat - Cubicle 7

 

In the morning Farfordda waits beyond the north gate of town, and when he sees Gaius galloping past, follows him. They reach Lindenheim by lunchtime, Farfordda passes around it - he sees a messenger riding hard from the north, then climbs the Two Fingers hill enough to get a view over the settlement, just in time to see Gaius leave. 

 

He climbs down and gives chase again, leaving the road only when he spies 2 wagons heading south. By nightfall he reaches Felangst Tower, reading tracks on the far side he deduces that Gauis stays within, so does his usual and sleeps up a tree - at least its not raining tonight.

The Dwarves leave Hohenfarht just after 9. Amos manages to find a moment to speak with Magdalena and tell her their plan, he also speaks with Wanda and learns that Gauis was here to meet the ale merchant heading for the Picket who left yesterday. 

Magdalena is, as Chaplain Lader identified much better - the disease has run its course. Still at Chaplain Lader's request she travels in the cart, but without manacles. Amos walks alongside  with young Luther the minstrel who is coming to see the infamous Heinz Greber be hung. They are in a veritable convoy with the Roadwardens and Lars the Bounty Hunter. 

Norgrim badly fluffs his Drive test, so a journey with should have taken 5 hours takes 11 - they arrive just after dark - their only encounter on the road being with the Karzburdger messenger Farfordda spotted - he tells them that the prison convoy arrived at Felangst tower last night, that a group of mummers played there and that Kepler Karzburdger is in residence. 

The Orchard View Inn is relatively busy with a crew of Mummers, plus some locals. Magdalena is thrown into the pit prison out back with Heinz Gerber who insists to her that he is actually Emmerich Handler from Gladbeich - if only someone would go and fetch his wife Heidi to prove it. The band decide to take watch to make sure nothing happens to Mags in the pit. 

 

The atmosphere in the Inn is fairly jolly. Amos gets a favourable reaction roll with Josef the Innkeep - he asks him about the Ruins of the Two Fingers (ancient Elf ruins - don't go near), they hear from some locals that there be work in the south as Blackweb Goblins attacked farms around Holzbek. The mummers tell him they played at Felangst last night, they came down from Salzenmund and were hoping to reach Middenehim for the carnival but took the wrong turn in the road.

Before crashing out Farfordda does the Tarot - will Gauis continue on North - he draws a strong hand and gets the answer No. He also casts Lie of the Land and sees the valley which leads up into the mountains, and the best spot to ambush Gauis on the road south. He wakes before dawn and goes to the spot 2 miles south of the keep. 

 

As he arrives he sees a group of monks heading south. He takes up position among the trees - Gaius leaves the keep just after 9am - when he gets within short range Farfordda casts whisper, saying 'Gaius old friend' - he spins around on his horse and Farfordda crits him in the leg with an arrow, then hits him again, this time in the back - Gaius gets control of his horse and tries to gallop back to the keep but another arrow to the body ends him. Farforrda manages to catch up and calm the horse, then search the body. It is morning on the 24th of Vorgeheim and the sky is overcast...

The Enemy Within - Session 106

 28/12/2024

A Knight's Tale

We start the session by rewinding to deal with Magdalena's journey to this point - from the other convicts sharing her prison wagon she chooses to speak to Olinda (once bar manager at The Templars’ Arms), who explains that she is indeed in cahoots with Nordland separatists and reveals what happened with Renata. Nobbler the halfling tells her that the Graf had a fit on grunsnacht and Reinart that the corpse of Lady Hirsch had the tattoo of a high class prostitute on the inside of her thigh.

Norgrim leaves the village to tell Farfordda the latest then Farfordda rides a few miles south from Hohenfart and tries learning Sleep, but fails. He also consults the Tarot; is Father Bach still alive? no.

The dwarves hang around the village - we make a roll to see what the village think of the Magdalena sitch - its very positive, Chaplain Lader (the priest) is clearly doing his job well. Wanda warns Thindra that Magdalena may be dangerous, apparently she was involved in some plot against the Graf. 

Late in the afternoon a recruiting sergeant shows up and the Inn fills with people to drink the free beer, the dwarves don't show much interest - the locals point him in the direction of the Teutogen Brotherhood Temple.

The following day (22nd Vorgeheim) Farfordda spends at the same location and this time is successful. Chaplain Lader makes his health check and is sure that Magdalena should break the back of the disease and be ready to travel tomorrow. Again we get favourable rolls for the village attitude to Magdalena. 

Magdalena in her moments of lucidity tells Chaplain Lader she is a knight of Myrmidia, that she was framed after informing the Graf's chief investigator about a cult in Middenheim - the Purple Hand, he has not heard of them - several good rolls do incline him to at least be sympathetic to her plight, he is willing to consider that she is a political prisoner.

Late afternoon a posse of Roadwardens ride in with the Bounty Hunter they previously saw at the Fox & Crown. The captain speaks with Amos when he hears about Magdalena saying they will ride with them to Lindenheim tomorrow - they are travelling there to get Heinz Greber whom Lars the Bounty Hunter caught. In chat with them the dwarves hear about the inauguration of the new Ar-Ulric and the mutant stoning.

Its starts to rain - heavily.
Just after 8 Farfordda drops over the fence into the village - Amos at the tents explains to him the situation with the Road Wardens (Thindra is sleeping in the common room as she has the middle guard shift). Meanwhile Norgrim is on guard duty and sees a rider enter the Inn compound, as he shakes the rain from his hat to enter the Inn he sees that it is Gauis! He rushes to the tent to tell Amos (and Farfordda)... it is 8:20pm Vorgeheim 22nd and raining heavily...

The Enemy Within - Session 105

 14/12/2024

A Cunning Plan

 Amos plays cards with the convoy guards while Norgrim & Thindra drink from the ale barrel and soak up whats going on. Villagers show up to see the prisoners, the Reeve is called by Wanda to adjudicate over the situation with the diseased prisoner - some are not happy that they are hosting a diseased invalid, others shout that this is Sigmar's judgement for forsaking him. One villager, a devout Sigmarite asks them if they saw the banished father on their travels - no. 

The guards chatting with Amos say they should just off her, I mean no one will thank them for bringing disease to Hope Square. The situation seems tense for most of the night. Norgim & Thindra retire to their tent just after 10, Amos stays on to try convince the chaplain that Magdalena is in danger from the guards and that they could be hired to protect her. Although convinced about the guards he fails to persuade Alberta, but decides he will spend the night in the coach house with her. 

Amos returns to the tents, Farfordda having spied them drops over the wall and they hatch a plan - he returns to the trees outside to sleep in the branches. 

At first light Amos and Norgrim return to the Inn while Thindra, inquiring at the cartwrights as to the Reeves house visit him... Thindra has the answer to this conundrum - the dwarves will take the sick prisoner to Hope Square if paid to do so, ensuring that the disease leaves his town but the convoy will be safe from infection. He agrees that this makes sense and they adjourn to the yard of the Inn where the Priest is arguing against killing the sick prisoner - Alberta sees the sense of the plan and offers them 2s/day, Thindra haggles (and crits), Alberta agrees to pay half up front and pay an extra 1/- per day. 

The Priest maintains that they cannot move a woman this sick and it is agreed that the dwarves and priest will stay to follow on later as soon as the Priest judges that she is fit to be moved - Alberta drops the up front payment but will pay 3s/day. 

The prison convoy rides out of town at 9am on Vorgeheim 21 (mild morning), the locals pelt the prison wagon with rotten fruit as it passes through the village...

The Enemy Within - Session 104

30/11/2024

The Foresters' Arms

They ride on past Hovelhof and a mile or 2 along the prison road they find a spot to run the cart off down a slope and make camp without fire. Amos makes shelters expertly to protect them from the light rain. Farfordda fails his roll to resist Mariposa's dream stalking, and Amos wakes from a dream of rats gnawing on his left arm to find a blister and coughing marking the start of his Itching Pox affliction.

They break camp early, Farfordda canters off ahead while the dwarves follow behind at cart pace. He ignores the Wolf Watch, though succeeds at an intuition roll to see the purple winds of death eddying around it. When he reaches the thin arm of the mountains that Hohenfarht nestles in he leaves his horse and climbs a ridge to see back over the way he has come. He spies a group of Nordlanders leaving the NE trail and waits until the Dwarves show up in their cart just after 1pm. These same Nordlanders hail the dwarves when they meet asking for news from Middenheim - they go there to celebrate the ordination of a new Ar-Ulric, good luck and beware of Sigmarites!

 

Shortly after the Dwarves rendezvous with Farfordda at the foot of the mountain spur. They decide that the Dwarves will push on to the village and Farfordda watch the road from a high vantage point. From up here he can see a compound like a Coaching Inn to the north and the Wolf Watch at the ege of the forest in the west. He spots the prison convoy a little after 2pm and watches it pass then follows on behind. He can see that Magdalena has been removed from the prison wagon and is manacled to the rear of the supply cart, she is filthy and looks in a bad way. 

Meanhwhile the dwarves arrive at Hohenfarht late afternoon - they tie up at the Inn (The Foresters Arms) and order food. Amos insults Wanda the young owner, asking her if there are anymore of her people here (she looks Strigany), consequently spending much of the remainder of the time coughing, sneezing and eating outside. Thindra does a good job of charming her though, tells her theres a prison convoy coming this way and that they are heading into the mountains on a dwarven pilgrimage, she asks about the giant bird skull over the bar. That came from her Aunty as a gift to her father who passed away last year - its a griffon skull, her aunty (she hasn't seen him since dad passed) is a professor in the city. Oh not Prof Eunice Hasche, the Beasteria Prof? Why yes, the very same! 

So Thindra makes it known that they know Eunice and lately had an agreement to meet which Eunice failed to do. Wanda tells her that one of her assistants was through here just before the last Chaos Moon - yes Gauis is his name. She also tells them that last week, the day after the chaos moon a troop of Tuetogen Brotherhood came to the village, tore the doors from their Sigmar temple, cast out their Priest and beat the reeve for protesting. She is appalled, they were supposed to visit today (festag) to make sure there was no Sigmar worship going on.

The Dwarves are debating what to do for sleeping arrangements, they can't really afford to stay in the inn, Wanda tells them they can camp on the common at the other side of the villlage but she'll need to charge them for fodder and stabling for their horses. Amos heads off to set up the tents and Thindra hangs out at the gates to keep an eye out for Farfordda and the convoy as the gates will be closed at 7pm. Norgrim stays in the bar which is fairly quiet (the locals drink at another tavern) for a Festag. The only other occupants right now are Valeria a merchant taking beer to the picket (at some point Thindra spoke to her and she explained the picket is a camp and wall around the Brass Keep since it was occupied by chaos warriors in the last great chaos incursion several centuries ago) and Luther a traveling minstrel. He buys a small keg of ale. 

Norgrim is still sat there when the prison convoy arrives and chaos ensues - Wanda asks him if he can drive their coach out from the the coach house as the convoy need to make use of it. Valeria is also having to move her wagon. Thindra and Amos enter the inn to get a measure of the situation - One of the prisoners (Magdalena) is desperately ill and will be kept in the coach house while the others stay in the prison wagon, the priest convinces the driver (who seems to be the boss of the situation) that he or the nun should stay here with a guard while they ride on...

Its 8pm (20th Vorgeheim), a warm evening and Farfordda is in the trees by the wall, he has spotted the dwarves & their tents though they have not seen him...

 

The Enemy Within - Session 103

 (19/11/2024)

Ruinous Powers

We start with Magdalena just after being incarcerated on the 17th. She whispers briefly to her neighboring cellmate who tells her that the guards will come if they hear. First Inspector Plasait drops by and confirms that she is indeed Magdalena and refuses to say anything about the charges. Shortly after the jailor has her change into a simple smock, then she is taken for questioning (by the captain) who tells her she is accused of murder, conspiracy against the Graf and consorting with the Ruinous Powers. She says she hasn't seen Arrion since yesterday, he just disappeared. She knows little about Sebastian Peak and that she came here seeking Herr Blitzen, a wizard. He warns her they will force a confession from her. 

Back in the cell she wakes after a nightmare, cold and miserable, to the sounds of a sewer jack whispering to some unseen character that here she is. Then she's questioned by General Schwermutt, he is angry about the situation and does not believe it - he tells her they found The Liber Mutandis among her belongings and that Father Bach had impressed upon him that this is nonsense. She mostly tells him what she told the captain, and critically that a) they sent Commander Shulztmann a letter explaining that the Sewer Jack was a skaven and in league with mutants who attacked them while they slept and that they were engaged in uncovering a skaven plot against Middenheim. He said he would go and petition the Graf on her behalf that evening…

Back at The Fox and Crown at lunchtime on the 19th the rest of the gang find a note waiting for them:

Dear Lady Grey, our friend has been arrested for murder, conspiracy and consorting with the Ruinous Powers. I don't believe a word of it, even though they showed me the book. I have implored General Schwermutt to intervene, and failed so far to contact her patron Herr Tore. I have fallen desperately ill and cannot do much more for now, this very letter is dictated as I am too weak to write. She is being held in the dungeon beneath the Watch headquarters in Grafplatz. I fear for her life.

Myrmidia prevail,

Father H. Bach

They pay to leave the 2 riding horses and Norgrim's dog and head off back to Middenheim, claiming they are going to look for work. Farfordda follows them on foot in the forest. They stop so that Amos can shave Norgrim's head by way of disguise. 

Just over half way to Middenheim they have to pull over to allow a convoy of 2 wagons and 4 outriders past - it is a prison convoy taking Magdalena and 5 others to Hope Square! Amos and Magdalena see each other. They turn around their cart and follow at a distance, Farfordda tracking ahead.

The prison convoy arrives at the Inn about 7pm, they stop their cart half a mile before the Inn and Thindra and Amos head in on foot just after 8. They are let in by Old Wendorf and a stable boy tells them he'll get their horses if they wait in the bar. Most of the guards are drinking, one is trying to round up locals for a game of cards. The 2 Shallyan's are talking with the lead driver. They tell Joli (the owner) they found a buyer for the horses so are heading back to Hovelhof. She tells them to be careful travelling at night and mentions Heinz Greber's gang - an armoured dude at the bar gives them a look at the mention of this name. 

They head out with the horses and get back at a little after 10, they still need to make camp somewhere...
 

The Enemy Within - Session 102

 (08/11/2024) 

Leaving Middenheim 

Farfordda wakes in a tree south of the city, then walks in the forest along the north east road, stopping to forage around lunchtime.

The Dwarves go buy a bow for Farfordda while they wait for Magdalena (they hear that the new Ar-Ulric will be sworn in on Festag), when she doesn't show by lunchtime they drive out of the city without any fuss. A poor drive roll on the part of Norgrim ensures they don't reach the Fox and Crown till just before sunset, though Farfordda accosts them near their destination (they also pass a troupe of Knights of the White Wolf on route). 

Magdalena wrote a couple of letters before leaving Tore Palace, one to Wilhelm Tore thanking him and 2 copies of another saying she was going to visit the Temple of Myrmidia then report to Inspector Plasait, explicitly stating that this was insurance in case she was wrongfully arrested. Then she went to the Temple of Myrmidia, tho not before hearing that Wilhelm Tore was happy as he had finally been granted an audience with the Graf which was to take place at lunchtime today, he believed this was in no small part due to Magdalena's performance at the jousting. 

Father Bach is delighted to see M, he tells her that Inspector Plasait was here asking about her yesterday, she tells him that they are on the trail of their friend who was abducted and are following the trail north to the sea - that they slew the sewerjack in self defence and that she was connected to these abductions. M then asks the father to come with her to the Watch HQ - he says sure. As soon as the desk sergeant realises who she is, Magdalena is arrested for the murder of the Sewer Jack Sergeant and consorting with the Dark Powers. Father Bach protests, but she is led away and locked in a dungeon cell.

Meanwhile the rest of the gang spend the evening in The Fox and Crown, Norgrim wins some money gambling, they pick up a bunch of rumours and a Shallyan Chaplain & Nun ask if they can travel together along the Prison road. Farfordda sleeps in the forest - and does the Tarot before he crashes - is Magdalena in immediate danger. No. But they are low cards.

Next morning (Vorgeheim 18th) they reconvene in the tap room of the Inn - they decide to send a message to the Temple of Myrmidia asking where Magdalena is, then pay to leave their horses and cart at the Inn while they go camp in the forest. It rains through the night, they get wet and Amos wakes with a burbling belly heralding pain to come, they break camp and head back down to the Inn by lunchtime (19th) to find a message waiting for them...