Session # 2

Session 2 – 2008-05-02

Marienburg:

We left our characters last time with Emanuel and Walter on their way to the ”witch” at the old temple to Sigmar, Leticia was keeping a lookout at the shallyan orphanage and Torrendil was speeding back to join her.

Being on her own Leticia tried her luck at earning a few coins with her acrobatic skills at a nearby inn, it went badly, very badly [Rolling 100] and as Torrendil got back he was met by the sight of a bouncer literarily tossing her out of the front door. With both bruised body and ego she and the elf staked out the orphanage at another nearby shady inn in the Doodkanal. Nothing much happened and Leticia wanted to sneak inside and see if they could find the room where the child, Karl, was raised. Torrendil didn’t think this was the best of ideas, as they knew nothing of what even to look for and managed to persuade Leticia from this idea, with a bit of grumbling from her side.

Walter and Emanuel returned to the former abotess Maida Widman, while keeping a lookout for Black Hats they pulled the rag out of her mouth and gave her some water and got the nearly dead woman to tell the story about the boy, how a Witch Hunter named Osric Falkenheim had found the babe and took him to the orphanage. Maida, blessed by the wisdom of Shallya saw through the child’s power and ordered Gerda Lutzen to take him to the Sigmarites. But Gerda, affected by the child couldn’t take the child to what would be his fiery doom, so Maida speculates she must have raised him in secret somewhere. Walter and Emanuel are now convinced Maida is no witch and she needs their help, so breaking open the lock on the cage, quite noisily, they grab the poor woman, and splitting up they make haste to the new Sigmarite temple, Emanuel creating a distraction by banging on doors, let’s them avoid the pursuing Black Hats. They get back to the temple where the young initiate Anders and Walter takes care of Maida with healing poultices and prayers, this while Emanuel speeds to the Doodkanal to find the other two. While he is away, Maida informs Walter that if he still is alive, they should try and find Ostric Falkenheim, he should be able to tell them here the baby was found.

Emanuel finds the elf and entertainer as they are staking out from their inn and takes them back to the temple. Here they talk through what they have gathered information wise and decide that they need to find this Witch Hunter, they think through where they could ask, since in Marienburg there is no temple the can simply go to. Emanuel gets the idea that they should check with the local Magistry, and making himself as presentable as he can he walks off to the more posh wards of the city, asking the Black Hats he meets gets him the address of a close by magister, whom he’s granted a late audience with, and feeling out of place in the rich surroundings the magister informs him he does know of Falkeheim and the last he herd was that the man was beaten senseless by the Crusade for some reason and now spends his days at a drug den in the Suiddocks. The bounty hunter returns to the others with this information and they set out immediately, having secured the abotess Maida in the priest’s quarters under the watch of initiate Anders.

They soon arrive at the scum ridden Suiddocks, asking directions from drunken sailors gives them two options, and Walter decides which den to seek out first by a flip of the coin (roll of the die) and yelling “Sigmar will lead us” the “coin” tells then to visit the Dreaming Lotus. Sigmar must be on their side as this shows to be the correct location. Showing the araby bouncer that glares at them through the looking slit in the door a few gold they quickly gain entrance to this sweet smelling, purple smoked place. Emanuel purchases a pipe and with that the information that Osric is indeed in one of the rooms above, they find him upstairs in a drug addled state, both legs broken and the rest of the mans body looks no better fared. Splashing water in his face gets his attention, as well as curses in the name of Sigmar, threats and not a much better smell. A bit clearer in the head they manage to get the story out of the ex-witch hunter.

Apparently he found the boy in the hands of cultists in a olden ruin, located deep within the Cursed March outside of the city. They were about to sacrifice the tyke when Osric and his men came upon them, both sides fought like devils over the boy and in the end all except a few that fled into the march lay at the feet of the Which Hunter and his men. They took the boy, but due to the moist march they could not burn the ruin, upon getting back he gave the boy to Maida and he confesses at the fact that it was very hard to do, he felt very compelled to keep the boy himself and protect him, but he bested this feeling. That was the last time he saw the boy until two days ago when he saw Karl on the steppes of the temple in Marienburg and when he protested Helmut the priests assertion that the boy indeed was Sigmars heir, he barely got away alive from the incensed crowd, saved by some friends. He tells the characters that if there is any evidence of where the boy came from, it might still be in the march ruins. Osric gives them 20gc, the only way he can help now he says, pointing at his legs. When they ask about Maida and her well being he promises to send some friends to pick her up, knowing full well she is not a which. His final words to the characters before they leave him to his drugs, is that if they see the boy, kill him at sight, he is dangerous.

Cursed March:

At the tip of Falkenheim they leave the city the next morning for the march, he gave them the name of the guide that led him and his men seven years ago to the ruins, Sumpfmund. He proves to be easy to find, as they come to the ramshack “town” next to the swamp anyone can point him out with a grin, everyone also says that the man knows everything about the swamplands, and he’s utterly mad.

Sumpfmund demands 3 shillings per day and tells the party that the trip will take three days there and as many back. The group agrees to this and they set of at once. In the swamp boat they get the “Sumpfmund Experience” as the man bombards them with information about the swamp, the loveliest place in the world! He has lived here all his life and hopes to die in it. But apart from driving especially Emanuel “this” close to strangling the man he proves that he knows the swamp like the back of his hand, as he guides them while they take turns rowing.

The first day they pump into a viny stump which proves to be a Bloodsedge, it rocks the boat so hard that Walter falls over and almost gets pulled down by the living plants vines but Torrendil hacks on it so badly it retreats under the water, either dead or badly wounded and they manage to pull Walter up, soaked in swamp water [And 1d10 of leeches!]. That evening they camp at a small island and the night proves uneventful except from many, many bug bites.

The second day proves easier, the only real danger is avoided as Torrendil’s elf eyes spots several Lashworms nesting in some dead trees and Sumpfmund tells them to steer around them. The only thing they had to stand up to this day was more of the guide’s never ending talk. The second night proves uneventful too.

The third and final day leads to more carrying of the boat then rowing and as the pass through some slimy waters something latches on to Walter’s leg. It proves to be a two foot long leech, it has closed its mouth over the initiates leg and is sucking his blood. It proves hard to attack it without hitting Walter’s leg but after a good while’s risk taking they kill the thing, and Sumpfmund pours some salt on it at Emanuel’s bequest and it falls of Walters leg. [Here Walter’s player had to roll a Toughness test, which he failed, but there were no apparent effects.] They travel on and at night break they reach the ruins.

The Swamp Ruins:

When they arrive they tell Sumpfmund to stay back, something he readily agrees to. And Emanuel sneaks forward to scout. He first sees one ruined tower with a wall, upon the tower he sees a humanoid figure through the smoky fog and night. He sneaks around more and sees two other towers, the ruins proving to be a old triangular fort, holes in each of the walls makes it easy to get inside and reporting back, he, Leticia and Walter moves in, Torrendil is staying back ready to approach and shoot at the tower sentry at a given signal, a frogs croak.

Leticia sneaks inside the walls, seeing a strange well with faintly glowing water in the centre. They have already seen a light in the window of one of the other towers, and she decides to sneak up the ladder inside the “guard tower”, inside it she finds a deep pit, filled with swamp water, and what smells like human waste. She starts to climb up the ladder, but it creaks and from a distance Walter sees the sentry’s figure move and stoop down, this is all he needs and he croaks like a frog, very badly. [Not an Initiate skill apparently.] This has two effects, the sentry actually stands up and doesn’t notice Leticia and seconds later two of Torrendils arrows hits him hard and he falls down screaming right into the pool of waste and excrement. Leticia sees that the “man” is a mutant, huge, fat and covered in brown and yellow fur. She starts climbing down.

Emanuel sneaks around the lighted tower during this, and hears people inside reacting to their sentry’s death howl. He has stolen the oars of their boats he found at the “beach” of the small island. He ready’s his crossbow and then jumps in front of the door ready to fire. Sadly, who ever is inside were also ready to fire and when the bounty hunter only sees a dark first floor, a crossbow bolt hits him in the head, doing some wounds but not fatal, he manage to scamper off and hide behind the glowing well. Leticia runs over and ducks beside him as Walter and Torrendil stands outside the walls readying themselves. Out of the tower two beings come running, one dressed in simple clothes with huge ears and eyes and the other dressed on a tattered robe and instead of a human head the man has one of a shark! This terrible vision sends fear into the characters, most can control it but Torrendil succumbs to it, standing there paralyzed. A melee issues dealing damage to both sides and it takes several rounds before Torrendil can shrug it of and start firing his bow. Walter, Letcia and Emanuel are all in the thick of it, after several more rounds the shark headed man, cursing them in the name of Stromfels (Which Walter recognizes as the “evil” god of the seas”) is the last to fall, as Walter crushes his ribcage with a swing of his hammer. Everybody of our party alive, Emanuel the most badly wounded. They go through the towers and bodies, tossing it all out to burn it on the courtyard. Leticia searches the storehouse and finds a piece of meat that turns out to be a part of a human leg; this costs her a point of sanity. [The first in the campaign, yey!] Of worth they find some lose change and a journal of the priest of this cult, apparently worshipping Stromfels.

The journal tells them about the boy as the cult seemed to have survived, but gone from 30 to fewer members. The boy was the child of a female cultist but was taken by which hunters as he was about to be blessed and sanctified in the “sacred pool”. They also find notes about a man called Jurgen Baer, who was seeking a boy with the powers of Karl about a month ago. The cult spied on Baer and the priest wrote that he frequented a place called “The Jolly Boatman”. They investigate the pool and can see no bottom, only a white, faint, glow. Walter prays over some ordinary water and then pours it in the pool and chanting over that as well, while the other help burn everything loose, as well as the bodies.

The return trip over the swamp is a lot less eventful and after three more days of bug bites and Sumpfmunds blabber, they get back into Marienburg, almost happy to see the city again.

Here ended the session.