FINALLY the FINAL

Well. I have the final entry of the Journal for Warhammer here, covering the last two sessions. I was not present for the last part of it, so I sort of pieced it together from information told me by Shawn and Tim...someone was supposed to give me a more detailed account but the person who shall remain anonymous but whose name starts with a T and ends in an M never came through. If it is partially or wholly innacurate...too bad because it's now written history and in a year or two the only account that will be remembered is MINE.

Journal- Party Favours

The above mentioned rest came after a long hard night of fighting and then a harder day of searching, watching, and trying to get the dwarf healed. The last part may have been the toughest of all the problems.
The necromancer was not quite as fearsome as he supposed himself to be; in fact after he summoned some skeletons to keep us at a distance, he tended to fizzle out on his attempts at spell casting, no better than a certain journeyman wizard I could name. Perhaps not even so good.
The skeletons were a mere annoyance, simply slowing down our pursuit of the fiend. Actually, one of them hit Furdok pretty good while he attempted to wade through them, but it was a lucky blow and he did eventually force himself through while the rest cleaned up the remaining skeletons. I got a couple good shots in on the dark mage, but once Furdok closed with him I was unable to provide further support without risking hitting the dwarf.
Unfortunately for Furdok, the necromancer was able to summon enough foul sorcery to, at the time I thought, kill him. Luckily, this was not the case, but it was close enough that I believe if Ulfred had not rushed to his aide, Furdok might have perished there in the filthy sewers. As it was, Volrad was able to “cleanse” the fiend with his magical fire, and the threat was ended.
He also “cleansed” the rest of the lair of its taint with fire while we searched for any clues. We came up mostly blank, and once we had determined that there were no further leads, we headed back to the cannon project warehouse. Once there, it began to dawn on us that we had been set up. Oskar, the snitch who put us on to the “saboteurs” in the first place, was nowhere to be found. The workers at the project had no idea who we were. We had been led deliberately to the hidden lair, perhaps to get us killed. If so, we have been underestimated, as we often are.
Luckily, the head of the project was willing to listen to our story, and though he kicked us out, he did not have us arrested as he might have. Instead, he chose to at least give enough credence to our tale to put us on Oskar’s trail and let us go on our way. The problem was, Oskar was fled from his home and we had little hope of tracing him.
Options were becoming limited. The dwarf wanted to go to the Temple of Shallya to get healed while we cleaned up and pondered our next move. The problems with that plan were manifold. First, the dwarf is tightfisted to the extreme and was unwilling to pay for the services, second he was unwilling to even get cleaned up and bandaged so his wounds would not be infected, and thirdly he has no possible way of being diplomatic about any of his irritating quirks.
So I begged a few gold crowns from the rest of the group (except for Ulfred…he was uncharacteristically unwilling to part with his crowns) and went to the Temple myself to…donate…to the priestesses in order to get them to not only heal Furdok but see if they could cleanse his mind of this sudden fear of water he had apparently developed. It was not quite as bad as I thought it would be…in fact it cost about 20 gold crowns, 7 of which I donated to the cause, but I would probably have gone higher because it was worth it just to get him to take a bath.
Which he did…Shallya came through wonderfully and Furdok was freed from the shackles of his own mind. I wonder if I can get them to cleanse him of his cheapness as well? This might be harder to do since he did realize afterwards how I had set him up, although I think he was grateful for it in retrospect.
Anyway, the rest of the fellows returned to the Inn to get some rest before the party. I decided to check out “The Maze” since I had heard that Oskar may have fled there, and it seemed like a likely hiding spot for Rolph as well. This proved to be a bad idea, and I nearly got lost, so I retraced my steps and left that for another time.
I went back to the Reaver’s and awoke my companions, and wrote a little bit while they got their costumes on for the party. We arrived a little bit after 9, and spent some time “hobnobbing” as the men call it. I met a merchant named Oldenhaller who seemed nice and possibly a good contact for future business relations. Konrad met the man who had replaced Randolph Vogt on the cannon project, and oddly enough Furdok met the Sheriff.
As it got later, and the Countess arrived, I began to get nervous, having not yet seen signs of the younger Vogt though the elder was in evidence. After a few false hopes, I saw a man in a blue costume arguing with Marshal Wolfhart, the man Konrad had been talking to. When I asked him about it, he feigned as though it were unimportant, but I was not convinced. A few minutes later I saw them head upstairs to the gallery and, concerned, I tugged on Ulfred and followed them up the stairs.
It was hard to get through the crowd, and so by the time we got up there the man in blue (who I was now pretty much convinced was Rolph) had assassinated the Marshal. He then clambered down a tapestry and made his escape from the hall through the stunned crowd. I attempted to pursue him, but somehow he was able to outpace me! I have never seen such a thing from a man before, unless he was also a mutant. This is of course not out of the realm of possibility given the gods Rolph has turned to.
He lost me in the crowd, once again foiling and frustrating any attempt we have made to apprehend him. Our only recourse was to try to use any resource we could to find and/or stop him. This included telling the authorities what we knew about Vogt, having the engineers check and recheck the cannon, and oddly enough speaking to his father Randolph.
Randolph approached Ulfred after the ruckus and seemed genuinely concerned about the safety of the cannon and his son’s questionable activities. Although he did confirm our suspicions about his son, he did not really give us any help in finding him, so I can’t say for certain he is innocent in all this. Hard to say.
In any case, we were left with nothing but attending the cannon ceremony, which we figured could only go badly given our abject failure in stopping any previous parts of Rolph’s plans and schemes. And as we expected, it went horribly bad. The cannon blew up. Konrad and Ulfred were injured very badly, and I had to rush to Ulfred’s aide from my position overlooking the bridge. Thus I was unmounted and busy tying off bandages when the mutants and Daemonettes erupted from the below and began their assault.
Of course, as we launched into our vigorous defense of ourselves and the people around us from the attack, an even bigger threat appeared…some kind of hideous abomination created out of the flesh and bones of Vogt’s victims was making it’s way through the crowd, slowly and methodically and eating people whole as it went. I did not see this thing at first…and in fact I may have been eaten myself if I had not been warned at the last minute that it was behind me.
As I scrambled away from it’s gaping maw, towards Noddin and Volkrad (who had been trying in vain to kill the thing with his magic), it suddenly erputed in a shower of gore. From it’s remains stepped the nightmare we had all been fearing, the Red Flayer itself. Huge and fearsome, it screamed in rage and set about trying to kill the nearest person it could find, which unfortunately happened to be Konrad.
Luckily, by this point the rest of our group had nearly finished off the mutants and daemonettes, though at the cost of some serious wounds. They quickly rushed in to try to save Konrad…though it seemed too late. Volkrad and I did our best to provide fire support, but the creature seemed to be cutting through us like wheat. Poor Gerlach was brutally slain. The demon stood triumphant and stood ready to mercilessly slay my wounded and dying companions who lay bleeding at his feet.
I took a deep breath and knocked an arrow. I knew this was my last chance. If I failed, all we fought for would be lost, as would the lives of those I had come to think of as my friends. I could not, would not, fail as I had failed before. I took my aim, and I let the arrow fly.
Perhaps my prayers to the gods were heard. My aim was true. My arrow struck the demon prince right in the heart and buried itself deep into it’s flesh. It let out a scream, and turned as if it was going to try to reach out and tear my heart from my chest in revenge…but instead it fell and died, it’s corrupt body dissipating and returning to the void from which it came.
But I only had a moment to savor my victory, then I had to rush to the aid of my grievously wounded companions. It took every ounce of knowledge I had learned about human anatomy, but the will of my friends to live is nearly legendary, especially Ulfred who I think simply refuses to die despite any injury he may take. Though tired, wounded, and badly shaken by the confrontation with the nightmare demon, they were on their feet again.
In theory, Vogt was still out there and needed to be brought to justice for this heinous crime. How to find him though? The answer was simple…follow the swath of destruction the abomination had left in its wake. No skill was needed for this, the path was so obvious a child could have tracked it back to its origin. We were unprepared, however, for the point of that origin when we discovered it:
The Reaver’s Return.
How? Ralph had been literally right under our feet the entire time and we had no idea. His lair was in the basement of the very refuge we had used as our home while staying in Nuln, and we had never had a clue. What’s more, we were unprepared for the sight which greeted us upon entering the cellar from which the beast had so obviously emerged.
Ralph was dead. This simply saved us the trouble. However, his killer was none other than Liebnitz, the corrupt priest we had slain in Middenheim. Sort of. By sort of I mean we had sort of killed him and it was sort of Liebnitz. His body was that of the incredibly fast fat man in black who had dogged us since Altdorf, but embedded in his chest was the face of the evil traitor Liebnitz, who had somehow become part of this other person. I don’t know how this happened, and I doubt I will ever know. We did not wait for any explanation or exposition on his part…as one we fell upon him with murderous intent, determined to stamp out his evil for once and all. Our grim fury at his acts lent us the strength, despite our wounded state, to slay him before he even had a chance to really react.
The chalice was ours, for better or for worse. Now we simply had to figure out how to get rid of it.
It was at this point that my suspicions about the Lady Katherine were confirmed. We had not seen her since our arrival, but she chose this moment to appear on the stairs and congratulate us on our victory. Then she suggested that we give her the chalice for disposal. We of course refused this offer. She then suggested that she would take it from our corpses if we did not give to her.
To be fair, we probably looked a sorry lot at that moment. Nearly every one of us was ragged, bandaged, limping, and covered in blood much of which was our own. Still, we had just killed a demon prince. Sorceress or not, Lady Katherine would have been wise to consider who she was dealing with before she made such threats. Her squad of mutants and daemonettes was vanquished (some simple deduction post-battle confirmed that she was a worshipper of Slaanesh and responsible for the attack, in opposition to the machinations of the Khornite forces which had been working towards the freedom of the Red Flayer), so she had no back up but her own sorcery.
This did not prove to be sufficient against the weight of our numbers and anger, and she perished as well, a victim of her own hubris and greed for power. It was not difficult to gather up the evidence we needed to present to the Countess of all the various nefarious goings on which had been occurring in her city. She was not ungrateful for our assistance in saving Nuln from the forces of Chaos, and gifted us with a warehouse in Nuln per our request, thus making the launch of our mercantile enterprise a sure thing. The chalice will be remanded to Light College in Altdorf for safe keeping.
As for us? Perhaps with the Red Flayer vanquished we can retire from this dangerous life of adventure and enjoy the fruits of our victories. Furdok will no doubt excel in the business we have acquired…though we currently have nothing but the barest skeleton of an enterprise I am sure that under his guidance and with the help of the rest, it will be built into a significant concern given time.
As for myself, I must consider the possibility of returning to my people. I don’t know if I am prepared to face them yet, to explain the death of my brother and my failure to prevent or avenge it. Nor am I sure that I would be ready to return to the life they have planned for me. These are hard questions, and ones that I must carefully weigh before I decide what to do.

I forgot I hadnt entered this yet

Journal- No Law Against Entering?

This investigation is possibly the most frustrating circumstance we have ever reached in our travels together. We know who is doing it. We know why he is doing it. We know how he is doing it. The only thing we can’t do is prove it. It’s almost enough to convince me that we should join a witch hunting order just to give us some legal authority to destroy these people who are otherwise incredibly difficult to bring justice to.
In fact, we have been forced to stoop to committing numerous crimes in the course of our quest to prove Vogt guilty, among which are burglary, theft, illegal entry, assault, and false imprisonment. If our crimes should come back to us and we be imprisoned for them, my only hope is that the authorities find this journal and read it and realize that we did these things to serve a higher good and bring a terrible menace to justice.
Let me explain. The first thing that should be noted is that Konrad talked to the city guard at the gate and discovered that the man we had been following around the city was not in fact Ralph Vogt but a young man with short blonde hair. In other words, we have no accounting for Vogt’s whereabouts on the last couple of nights and therefore can certainly say that he has no proper alibi. The second thing that should be noted is that we consulted with a dwarven engineer about the blueprints that Noddin stole, and were told that they looked like plans for the Great Cannon which the Countess has ordered constructed; however they were notated in a way that looked as though it was being altered to fail when used. I went back and retrieved the set that I had found in the workshop and, when compared, it did in fact show that someone was planning to sabotage the cannon. So at least now we had evidence of treason, though it appeared that this was an act of the senior Vogt and not Ralph.
Furthermore, adding to our conviction that we were rapidly approaching a serious crisis in relation to the Chalice was that, upon arriving at the Becker manor that morning to keep our appointment with the Lady Elzbeth, we found her staff murdered and her own personage to be missing but her hand left behind. I think we can be certain that she did not forget it in her haste to flee. She was either dead or mutilated and imprisoned by the foul villain behind the attack.
So when we broke into Vogt’s house and knocked out his servants and tied them up, and searched the home from top to bottom looking for anything else we could find to tie Vogt to the murders, it was because we were desperate and had no idea at all where either Vogt was. It also came to our attention that an innocent (albeit insane) man was about to swing for the murders that we were 99% sure he did not commit (given the nature of his insanity, ie to make outrageous claims such as “I am the Emporer”) we felt we had to do anything we could to pin the blame properly before that occurred. Sadly, we failed in this and every other aspect of our intentions. We found no hidden lair, no further evidence of treachery, and no trace of Vogt’s whereabouts.
So the man hung. However, after talking to the servants we discovered that they were not entirely unconvinceable that the Vogt’s were up to no good. Indeed, they did seem to think that their recent behavior was somewhat suspicious and agreed to at least try to keep an eye open and find out what was going on, which is a big concession after we had tied them up and locked them in a closet. What I mean to say is that they agreed to this after we had released them, which means it was not coercion but their own suspicions of the Vogt’s which led them to be at least tenuous allies.
Still, it seemed like we were at a dead end. We had no way to find Vogt and no way to prove he was guilty other than finding him and wherever he was keeping his victims, dead or alive. We decided to canvas the city in a last ditch effort to find him or anyone who knew where he might be.
It was in the course of this that we found the body of the Altdorfer gunsmith who we had saved from rioters dead in an alley, murdered in a similar fashion to the other victims. Two murders in one night; things were obviously becoming more serious. It also appeared that Vogt was targeting people connected to us in some way. We did get one break, however. We were approached at one of the pubs we were canvassing by a Nulner working on the cannon project.
Apparently he had heard of our inquiries and sought us out because he had discovered some very suspicious activity going on at the project. What he told us was that he had noticed odd goings on, and had shown up early one morning before any of the other workers arrived in order to check on things himself and see if he could figure out why things were going wrong. What he found was a coven of robed individuals engaged in some sort of activity around the cannon, who fled into the sewers when confronted. He could not put his finger on what they had been up to, but when shown the blueprints we had discovered at Vogt’s showing his designs for sabotaging the cannon, he realized that those were the exact things which he had noticed and was able to then realize how the cannon was being subtly but effectively ruined.
He offered to show us the site so we could try to find out where the saboteurs had fled to. He knew the location of their entry and exit, but had no confidence that his suspicions would be properly investigated by the guards assigned to the cannon project and wanted us to help. We agreed, but gave him the two sets of blueprints and asked him to see if he could try to use the evidence of tampering to get an official investigation started.
Meanwhile, we once again ventured into the familiar, rank territory of city sewers. I was easily able to find a trail in the muck and we tracked the perpetrators quite some distance through the undercity. Or so I thought. It is possible that I got the trails confused with another, or that I started following the wrong trail to begin with, but either way we ended up in a secret chamber dug out of the regular sewage line, the outside of which was soaked in gore.
The inside of the chamber was infested with zombies. Zombies are slow and fairly easy to return to their state of inanimation if you keep your head about you, and so we managed to dispatch them with little trouble. Further into this hidden lair we found a large chamber which had walls decorated with various limbs and organs, and showed evidence of necromantic activity. Shortly thereafter a door opened and said necromancer appeared to see who was intruding.
There followed an odd conversation with this strange person. Although normally inclined to immediately dispatch any such personages we discover, we decided that more information was needed before we turned him over to the Sigmarites and/or killed him. What we found out was that he did not seem to be associated with either Randolph or Rolph Vogt in any way which was surprising given how we had found him in the first place. He did however inform us that he had actually seen Rolph commit some of the murders whilst he himself had been about the city at night looking for materials for use in his own dark magics.
So we had a witness to Vogt’s crimes, but one which was guilty of his own horrible crimes. He even gave us confirmation that Vogt had the Chalice, as he had seen him use it to commit the murders. Given this, we decided that our only reasonable course of action was to bring him alive to the authorities so his story could be properly recorded before he was burnt.
Apparently the necromancer had some reservations about this course of action, and decided that he would not in fact follow our instructions and come peacefully with us. Given that, we had no choice but to engage him before he could do something unpleasant such as summon more undead or afflict us with his dark magics. As my comrades are now awake and summoning me to action, I shall continue this account at a later time.

I guess I'll have to use IE for this.

I just combined two weeks of log together. Enjoy.

Journal- Rock the Vogt

The mystery we are pursuing is no longer as shadowy as it was before. Instead it has become pitch black. Every answer we get leads to new questions for which the answers seem impossible to descry.
We managed to track down both Baer and Vogt, so one might think that we had made significant progress. However, after speaking to people about Baer’s war experience and questioning the man himself, it became apparent that he was nowhere near the Sigmarian Abby in question, and that he himself was a self-pitying drunk who had washed out of the military for cowardice. Though he did not have his sword, his story of selling it for beer money was corroborated by witnesses.
Somehow, Furdok managed to annoy Baer into joining our search, somehow convincing him that he could redeem himself by aiding our quest, and so a new member has joined our little band of questors.
In the meantime, Volkrad and I tracked down Vogt at the Golden Hammer, an upscale restaurant in the Altstadt. He seemed quite pleasant, and was in possession of his gifted sword. At the time I had no reason to suspect him of any nefariousness.
Which led us to Tolzen. But Tolzen is still nowhere to be found. He has apparently gone walking in the woods, which seems like an odd thing to do, but nonetheless the Sigmarian order he has joined insist that he is not present in the city at the moment, although they expect him to return before the end of Black Powder Week. Having no other leads, we resolved to await his return.
The following day we discovered that a young merchant’s daughter named Maglyn Erhardt had gone missing with a 200 crown reward for her return. With nothing better to do and the sound of gold clinking in the dwarf’s ears, we decided to pass our time by finding yet another rich man’s daughter.
On the way we ran into the wizardess Gabrielle who had helped us destroy the dagger in Altdorf, which could be fortuitous if we need her to do it again with the Chalice. Volkrad knocked over some fishmonger’s barrel and was harried into agreeing to pay for the fish he’d ruined. After a brief conversation with some high and mighty magisters, we found our way to the Erhardt’s.
It quickly became apparent that the Erhardt’s were in some denial about their daughter’s situation and the facts of her disappearance. There was a bloodily murdered man nude in her bed, and the maid indicated that this was one of many “gentleman friends” she had who were not her fiancé. I found boot impressions underneath the trellis, which had been used by the murderer (and countless secret lovers) to climb into the girl’s room. I took their measure and made a sketch, hoping to find the killer by matching their footwear.
After that we went to visit her fiancé, on the theory that he had committed the crime in a jealous rage over her infidelity. As it turned out, Barnabas Liese had known for some time about her proclivities, and had a mistress of his own. The marriage was strictly to be for financial reasons, and while he was not entirely happy with her activities, he did not care enough to murder her lover. And in fact it would have been pointless, as he showed us a list of the men whom she had been seeing he had compiled using a local pair of hirelings named Otto and Felix.
There were 26 names on that list, and so killing one of them in a crime of passion and carting away the bride to be seemed…unlikely. Liese is more or less off our list of suspects. One might imagine that with 25 other men on the suspect list (Pieter the man in her bed having been exonerated from suspicion by virtue of being dead) it would be night impossible to narrow down the suspects. However, after reading it over, one name immediately jumped out at us.
Rolph Vogt.
I admit that I made several leaps in logic which have so far not been proven by evidence, but I imagined that if he were the possessor of the chalice, fits of murderous rage would be a likely symptom. Though he had a Grunbar forged sword, he could have purchased it from the man who bought Baer’s sword, a man I might add who fit the description of the mysterious fat man in black who has been plaguing us since Altdorf in all but height. In fact he was supposedly quite short while our man-in-black is very tall. However, Ulfred brought up the possibility that he was riding on the shoulders of another…on the face it seems like a silly idea but it would explain how he was able to move so quickly and navigate while looking backwards.
So we set out to locate Herr Vogt using several stratagems which ended up being pointless…he was at his father’s home and easily found by Noddin who was posing as a Tinker. In addition Randolph Vogt, the senior Vogt and ex-Marshall of the Countesses’ artillery, was in a workshop out back. Shortly after discovering this, Noddin witnessed Rolph leaving the estate via horseback and wearing a hooded black cloak. He gave pursuit, passing Furdok, Baer, and I on the way.
Informing us of his quarry, we gave chase as well, tracking him to the eastern gate where he exited the city. Furdok ran back and got the others, while I followed the horse tracks to the edge of the wood.
Once the rest had joined me there, I tracked Vogt through the woods. At one point he dismounted his horse and walked for a while for absolutely no discernable reason. Then he returned to the city through the west gate into the Neuestadt. At this point he could have been anywhere in the city and I had no way of tracing him, though some of Noddin’s urchins had seem him riding in the general direction of the gate between the Neue and Alt stadt. I figured that it was just possible we could catch up to him if he was caught in one of the lines at the gate, so we hurried to pursue.
I’m not sure it would have worked, as it turned out the lines were quite short that evening anyway, but it did not help that we were delayed by a riot. In particular one agitator led a group of locals in an attempt to “rough us up”, perhaps not noticing that our group consisted of several well armored men-at-arms and an Imperial Magister. I decided to try and turn the tide immediately by perforating the agitator, and hoping this would discourage the others.
I wounded him sorely, but did not kill him. His followers set upon us, but I sent my attacker fleeing by noting to him the discrepancy in our relative armaments and skill at arms. He agreed with me and fled. I then took the opportunity to put another arrow into the agitator, which shut him up quite nicely and seemed to convince the rest that they ought not to pursue the battle any longer, and so fled. It perhaps also helped that Ulfred cut one of the rioters practically in half with his halberd, which I found a little extreme but more than likely affected their morale. The agitator was duly arrested by Konrad.
We did not find any further sign of Vogt that night. However upon breakfast hour the next morning, we discovered that the fishmonger whose goods Volkrad had overturned had also disappeared. Since he was simply vanished, and neither he nor his shop had been burnt to ash, we decided that Volkrad was not a suspect.
Vogt, on the other hand, could be. After retracing Harmon Otzslo’s steps the previous evening, we discovered a witness who had seen him accosted in an alley outside the Randy Robin and dragged away. The description of the assailant matched that of Vogt, though there is no way to tell for sure. The bartender did seem to think that the fishmonger and Vogt knew each other based on their interaction inside the bar. Otzslo’s wife, however, was unable to confirm this.
In the midst of this, Furdok, Baer, and Konrad discovered another missing party, the son of the city’s ex-exchequer who had vanished on the first night of the festival. This means that at least one person has disappeared on each consecutive night so far during Black Powder Week. We have not yet connected Kuhn, the missing lad, to Vogt but most of us believe we will find a connection. Under the theory that he would act again on the fourth night, we resolved to try to follow him.
That was a big failure. He went out the east gate and came in the west gate just as before, and this time we were set up to make sure we could follow him through the city. Which we did…right back to his house. He went inside, and we heard nothing further from him.
Frustrated, we decided to search his home. I snuck into the workshop where his father worked, and found nothing but a set of blueprints presumably for a cannon. Noddin broke into the Manor, and found it empty. Empty. How had Rolph gotten away without our noticing? And where was the rest of the family? Noddin too found a set of blueprints in the house, but unlike me he took them. We are at a loss to explain the empty house.

The Wurst is yet to Come

We had some breakthroughs here at the beginning of black powder week. Luckily for us, we caught some breaks in this matter. Following certain leads, we discovered a message from Stark sent to Rudi, indicating he had given him the sausages. The urchins got ahold of the message Stark had sent to parties unknown, and it indicated that he was indeed behind the kidnapping. We also followed leads which had Noddin take the Fleischer’s next door neighbor to dinner at Chez Louis, a widow named Garten. She confirmed the mystery serenader, but more importantly he found out that Chez Louis had a performer named Maria de Miragliano who sang some nights at the restaurant. Not coincidentally, patrons of the restaurant had found items going missing during their dinners there. Putting two and two together, I figured that the singing was somehow charming the patrons in order that they could be robbed, and that this Maria was likely the same person who had been singing beneath Hannah’s window, thus enabling her kidnapping through sorcerous means.

The final piece of the puzzle was resolved by the discovery of the hovel where Stark was keeping poor Hannah imprisoned. I followed him there from his shop, and was surprised when one of Noddin’s urchins led the rest of my friends there later that evening. It was good though, because the padlock on the door was too heavy for me to break, but Noddin was quickly able to pick it.

Entering, we found Hannah chained to the floor. However, she had been horribly mutated, and indicated it had been tainted sausages which had done it. I immediately put her out of her misery, as there is no room in this world for that which Chaos spawns, even when it is forced on an innocent such as Hannah. Only the oblivion of the Ruinous Powers lay ahead of her.

She managed some dying words, but it was not information which I hadn’t already surmised myself anyway. The plot was clear: Stark was attempting revenge against his rival by destroying Hannah. He was using warpstone or something similar to created tainted sausage, probably using Albrecht’s shop. He had sent that sausage to Rudi, and therefore it was likely Rudi was either dead or hideously mutated. Stark was in league with Maria, using her to further his nefarious plans, which probably involved sneaking the tainted sausage into the Fleischer stores in order to discredit him.

We resolved to confront Stark immediately. At his shop, Noddin had some trouble with the lock. While he was working on it, a small dog (which I surmised to be Bonifaz, but was wrong) grabbed a string of sausage and bolted out the window of the shop. I feared it to be tainted, and so I gave pursuit. Furdok tried as well, but his short little legs kept stumbling over things in the street. I grabbed the little dog and prevented it from eating the sausage. Then I tied it to a tree while we went inside the shop.

Inside, we were confronted by Rudi the mutant monstrosity and a mad, cackling Stark who possessed a glowing medallion which seemed to control Rudi. Stark retreated down a hole in the floor while Rudi prevented our pursuit. Luckily, Rudi was easily overcome with little trouble. However, pursuit through the sewers of Stark proved more difficult. One of his hired hands was waiting in ambush down there, firing a crossbow at Furdok before fleeing.

Finally we emerged at the riverfront, where Stark had Maria tied up on a barge. He used the medallion to force her to sing to us, our first indication that she was not a willing accomplice. Luckily for us we had been braced for this assault, our minds strengthened by our previous exposure to the fiendish powers of Chaos, and nobody succumbed to the song. Stark, however, tried to use Nurglish sorcery on us, but luckily we avoided it successfully as well.

Furdok kept the henchman busy while the rest of us concentrated fire on Stark. It took a bit, but I managed to finish him off with a couple of fletches to his chest. Then the rest of my companions helped Furdok finish off the henchman. Maria we freed, but it was apparent that her power stemmed from some sort of mutation, which made her dangerous and tainted even if it was not visible. We took the medallion and the mutant songstress to the Sigmarites, and had them both destroyed.

In the end, we had to break the bad news to Herr Fleischer about his daughter. He was aggrieved, but appreciated our efforts and gave us our reward. We did not mention to him the fact that I had to kill her myself…my human compatriots seemed to think it would cause him unnecessary pain to tell him his daughter had been tortured and mutated, so I kept silent. Now we can concentrate our efforts on finding the owner of the sword. During this time, we spoke to Lady Becker and got some further leads towards locating the officers we were seeking, so we shall see what pans out.

Short but sweet

Journal- Digging

Furdok’s pestering the Nulnese dwarves did achieve us the knowledge of who had forged the blade whose owner we sought: a master craftsman named Grunbar. Apparently he had been commissioned to create the swords as gifts for seven regimental officers who were going to fight in the recent war. Unfortunately, he was then imprisoned by the Countess after she discovered that he had been making knock-off copies of the swords as well. This gave us at least one avenue to explore in order to find the owner, possibly more, but they all seemed somewhat difficult.

As we seemed to have nothing to do for at least a day or so while we waited for certain contacts to become available, we decided to avail ourselves of the job offer which the drunken sausage-maker had given us. We visited his house and he informed us that his daughter had disappeared and he wanted us to find her. He said she had last been seen with a friend of hers by the name of Karla Lindt, who claimed no knowledge of her whereabouts. He also told us that one of his shops had been broken into repeatedly, which he was not sure had any bearing on the disappearance or not.

While Konrad, Noddin, and I did that, Ulfred went to inquire about the job with the city watch captain, and Volkrad and Furdok went to the Temple of Verena in order to get a writ of passage for the Iron Tower in order to visit Grunbar. This was apparently easily accomplished. Afterwards, Furdok visited Grunbar and found out very little. However, he did say that he had delivered the swords to the Gunnery school, and that the one we possessed was indeed an orginal, so that helped.

The next morning, we decided to split up. Or rather, I decided to split us up. After Ulfred left early for his new job, it didn’t seem like anyone was too keen on making a decision. I would rather Ulfred take charge, but with him gone I felt like I had to say something or we would just sit in the inn all day. So I told Konrad, Volkrad, and Noddin to go ask around the sausage shops about the missing girl, and Furdok and I went to the Gunnery school to enquire about the swords. We decided to meet up later at Karla Lindt’s home to question her.

The Gunnery school required some gold to work through, but we got the names of three officers who had since returned to Nuln from the war. This was not all seven obviously, but we were working under the assumption that the person who we were looking for had come back. If not, our quest is much harder. The names were:

Gerlach Baer, Rolph Vogt, and Semund Tolzen. Having accomplished that, we left to go track down the Lindt home.

Eventually we met up with the rest, but the Lindt’s were not at home so we had to return the next day. So we visited the Green Bottle Inn instead and got the key to Albrecht’s shop from him. We searched for clues in the shop, and actually found a locket that belonged to Miss Hannah in the sausage grinding shed, which led us to fear the wurst. Er, worst. We also found a wooden leg, but that turned out to be Albrecht’s. We staked out the shop all night, but nobody broke in and made sausages in the middle of the night.

Volkrad and I tried to visit Lady Becker the next day but were told that she was not ready to see visitors yet, so we made an appointment for the morrow. We did manage to see Miss Lindt that day, as well as get some information from some street urchins. I believe that Furdok went back to the Gunnery school and got some information about the officers we were seeking. Konrad went to the Gunners Arms, and Noddin talked to a rival sausage maker named Stark. I’ll record what information they have gathered in my next entry.

More more more

This I actually had done last week but I totally forgot to put it up.

Journal- The madness of dwarves

Despite the best efforts of whoever or whatever power is trying to stop us, we did manage to get to Nuln. This was in spite of a beastman attack on a shore traveler, an onboard murder, the reappearance of the mysterious cloaked fat man from Altdorf, and the increasingly odd behavior of Furdok.

This last began to become apparent during the first. We left the boat in order to go investigate a coach we had spotted from the ship which had apparently been attacked. Once we snooped around the scene a bit, it was clear to me that beastmen had been responsible and had dragged some of the people in the coach away into the woods to whatever dark purposes they employ. The symbol of Khorne was evident, and I discovered a large number of gold coins scattered around, as well as a generic invitation to a ball being thrown by the Electress of Wissenland herself. The captain indicated that I should give the coins to charity, which I thought was probably a good idea. He wanted me to give it all to an orphanage, but I decided to give some of it to Konrad. Every time he gets paid he has to turn over most of his gold to me because of his debt, and I feel bad about that. I wanted him to be able to keep his pay after this journey, so I took some of the gold I found and “paid his debt” for him.

Granted this was a wide interpretation of charity, but on the other hand given all that he has done for the Empire I think he deserves to be debt free for once. In any case, after I made the determination that the beastmen had taken some of the victims, Furdok became insistent that we go after them. There were any number of good reasons why we shouldn’t do this, and we gave him every one. Still he insisted, even said he would be happy to go alone. No matter what we said, he seemed determined to stay on shore, even planning to walk to Nuln. I can’t explain it, it almost seemed like he was afraid to get back on the boat. But perhaps it was just that his anger at the Beastmen has reached the point of a full-blown grudge, and he wants any chance to fight them. If that is true though, it could spell trouble for us. A dwarf who decides they have a blood-grudge against something like these bestial hordes of Chaos is no doubt on his way out of this world shortly.

Ulfred appealed to his honor, however, and he extremely reluctantly got back on board. His odd behavior continued, however. He started pretending to be Volkrad at the bar, and I believe he was drinking even more ale than usual, though it’s hard to tell. I worry about both of them now. Perhaps the strain of this life of warfare is too much for them. I was looking through one of Volkrad’s old books on the stars…he used to be fascinated by the heavens but now he barely acknowledges them. Anyway, there was a part about the star sign you are born under and their effect on your destiny. It seems the one I was born under is known as “Grugni’s Baldric” (which I find ironic, but…) and it indicates that one is meant to be a warrior. That would explain why I was drawn away from the priesthood and threw myself into the warriors the way I did. It might also explain why, despite the fear I feel every time we are faced with the snarling minions of Chaos, I am able to keep my head about me and not break under the strain of combat. But I digress.

I was going to talk about the murder of Reinalt Leitdorf. He was found dead in a cabin not his own, some time after a serious fight with another passenger named Matthias Alptruim. Naturally my first assumption was that Herr Alptruim had done him in, but after checking the facts of the case it appears that this is not what happened. In fact, I believe that it was the fat man in the black cloak from Altdorf who did the deed.

The body was discovered in an empty cabin which had been rented by an Arabyan named Antikari who had cancelled at the last moment. The murder seemed to have been committed with natural weaponry, in fact the discovery of a tooth broken off in the mess which used to be the victim’s face leads one to believe his was gnawed to death. Alptruim showed no sign of having broken any teeth, and in any case he seems more the type that would stab or poison an enemy rather than chew them to death. The assailant was probably a mutant of some kind.

Questioning of the passengers revealed that a Dagmar Langdorf had seen a man who matched remarkably the description of the man that Ulfred and I had seen following us in Altdorf: a heavy set man dressed in black robes who moved with remarkable speed and alacrity, able to navigate through obstacles without even looking where he is going. I followed a trail of blood from Antikari’s cabin all the way up to the top deck and rail, seeming to indicate that the killer had fled and jumped ship. Since all passengers were accounted for, I began to suspect that this cloaked man had stowed away and was the same person responsible for the murder.

Unfortunately, there is no way for us to conclusively prove this, but we were able to exonerate Alptruim from the charge of murder. I have a theory which I shared with my companions; that this mysterious fat man is either Antikari or works for him, and that the cancellation of his passage was just a ruse in order to allow him to operate on board without being detected by us. Leitdorf, perhaps trying to avoid Alptruim or for some other reason trying to skulk, ducked into the unused cabin and accidentally found that it was not in fact unused. Caught, the cloaked man killed poor Leitdorf and fled the boat.

Why the fat man is following us cannot be known for sure, nor can it be proven this is in fact what happened, but it is clear that he is interested in us for some reason. It is also clear that he has some unnatural abilities, which means that he is either a warlock, mutant, or both. No doubt we will run into him again, and perhaps this time we will catch him.

As far as Herr Leitdorf is concerned, we have determined to take his possessions to his family for final disposal once we locate them here in Nuln. The only thing we are keeping is another invitation to the Countess’ ball which gives us two. I’m not sure how they fit in, but Konrad made the connection that in both cases we found them the bearers had been murdered by apparent forces aligned with the Ruinous powers. Therefore they might be important.

When we debarked, the captain was kind enough to reward us by giving us some payment, a letter of introduction to a local noble lady named Elsbeth Becker, and the erasing of the tab which Furdok had run up under Volkrad’s name. The Lady Katherine also paid us, and so we entered Nuln flush with gold. If this city turns out to be anything like the others we have visited, no doubt we will need every penny of that before our job here is done.

Most of the inns in the city were filled up because of the festival, so we had to take what we could get. It’s all the same to me anyway, because I would rather sleep in the stable with Stormweather anyway. While seeking a vacancy, we rescued a man from some muggers (this is probably how we keep getting into trouble, interfering in things which aren’t our business) who then pointed us to a “tree” downtown near which he had posted some sort of job request. We managed to find the post in question, though there were many posters on the kiosk. I narrowed it down to three or four.

In the mean time, Furdok insisted he ask the local dwarves to get us some kind of introduction to the Leitdorfs in order to return his belongings. I don’t know why he was unwilling to just ask the Lady Becker who we already had an in with, but Furdok will be Furdok. In the meantime, we went shopping and stopped by the Becker manor to introduce ourselves. The Lady was not in, so we made an appointment to come back and see her when she arrived and had rested.

More log

Sorry this took so long to get up...have had little time.

Journal- Death on the Reik

Of course it would have been too easy had the Abbey been abandoned. No, there was a further infestation of foul Beastmen lurking within, and they almost managed to waylay us while we were trying to figure out how to get in the tower. Luckily for us I managed to spy them as they boiled out of the main building and charged us. The fight was short and brutal, but in the end we prevailed with little serious harm. In fact, even Ulfred managed to get away without a scratch, which was amazing.

I had thought that we were told a detachment of Imperial soldiers had cleared out the Abbey after it had been overrun, but the Beastmen band inhabiting seemed to suggest otherwise. However, once we investigated thoroughly it appeared as though a Nuln regiment had indeed been through and taken heavy casualties to boot, most of which they had piled in the Charnel house in the cemetery for some reason. The tower turned out to be where the last remaining priests had hung themselves rather than succumb to the beastman horde, and somehow it was there we found a copy of the very same journal that Noddin had plucked out of his dream. We were certainly in the right place.

Unfortunately, upon searching the hidden room beneath the altar, we found that the chalice had been removed. Nearby we found a well-crafted sword apparently dropped by an Imperial officer, suggesting that it was in fact a Nulner soldier who had taken the relic. I surmised that the Beastmen we had encountered here had been sent to search for the relic after the first band of attackers had failed to return with it. Perhaps the Nulners had come, destroyed the original beastmen, and then somehow found the relic and taken it. If so, it is very possible the person who took it has been corrupted by its influence. We took the sword in hopes that we could track down its maker and thereby find the owner who had left it.

The church itself had been defiled by the beasts who had occupied and searched it. While the rest were burying the bodies of the dead, Volkrad took it upon himself to burn down both the abbey and the sole remaining tower. This has added further worry to my concerns about his behavior. In truth, it may have been the right choice, but he used his magic and did it so wantonly it rather frightened me. He was not allowed to burn down the charnel house, which is to my mind exactly the reverse of what should have occurred. Man has an annoying tendency to leave their dead intact, rather than properly disposing of them by fire. This is why the ranks of the restless dead are swollen by the rotting carcasses of Men. Will they never learn?

We returned to Altdorf afterwards, and though we tried to uncover any clue we could find about the sword it seemed pretty clear that our answers would lie in Nuln. Conveniently, a certain Lady Katherine had offered us a job to escort her to Nuln via river boat. We accepted, but it seemed as though it was expected that our steeds would remain behind. Obviously, these men are ignorant of the relationship which exists between an elven steed and its master. There was no way I could leave Stormweather behind, and so I was prepared to ride her along side the river on the road until reaching Nuln. I thought Konrad would do this as well, being as how he is a roadwarden and not a riverwarden, but he elected to leave his horse behind. Unthinkable. Still, when this Katherine noted I was preparing to ride to Nuln she went ahead and procured passage for my horse as well.

Here’s where my inherent paranoia begins to kick in. It is so difficult to determine which Men to trust and which are working against us. This Lady Katherine I have discovered is not only paying us 20 Karls for our service, each; but payed 75 Karls for our passage on the boat. That is all told about 600 Karls just for escort to Nuln on one of the safest methods of travel in the entire Empire! An absolute fortune! Hence, I can only suspect she is setting us up for something. She probably works for some Ruinous Power and is keeping us close to make sure we fail in whatever endeavor we are attempting.

Of course, the Beastmen found us. They attacked the ship, firing arrows and boarding the boat while we were at out most vulnerable, without most of our weapons or armor. The crew sprang to the defense, but it was quickly clear that only our expert ability to deal with their threat was going to repel the foul spawn. I thought we would stay behind a defensive barrier and try to fend them off, but of course the dwarf charged right to the rail and began to melee with the boarders. Viewing the tactical situation, it immediately became clear to me that if I did not back him up, he would have 6 beastmen attacking him. And no armor.

I should digress at this point. I have never seen the dwarf out of armor before this boat trip. Something was bothering me, and it was at that moment I realized what it was. Looking at Furdok wearing only the spun cloth of an every day commoner, I suddenly realized what was different about the dwarf. And then I knew that Furdok and I had something in common…something that we would never have realized we might share. Without another thought, I drew my sword and charged into battle, taking three of the beasts at the rail.

The gods know how much I hate and fear these beasts of Chaos. I almost could not believe that I was doing this…I though for sure I was going to perish. But my training took over, and though the first beastman easily ducked my sword it unbalanced itself in such a way that I was able to plant my foot in its chest and send it plunging back into the river. I spun and sliced into the second beastman, somehow managing to parry its riposte and duck its companion’s clumsy blow. I turned and hacked at that beast, but took the creature beside me by surprise when I brought my elbow back into its throat, causing it to stagger back and follow its compatriot into the churning river.

Suddenly, it was just me one on one with a Beastman. I looked over and Furdok was hard pressed by all three attackers, although quickly being reinforced by Konrad, Ulfred, and Noddin. Meanwhile, Volkrad came to my aide and between us we made short work of the creature assailing me. After that and with superior numbers on our side, the last boarders were repelled.

Volkrad used magic on board without the express permission of the captain, something we were told was against the rules, and he has been summoned to speak with him. I can’t imagine the repercussions will be too serious, however. In the meantime, I am catching up with a little writing and hoping that I can make a successful business deal between myself, Furdok, and a rich elven merchant I met onboard named Camreanne Youngwood. She seems like someone we can deal with…I only hope Furdok can make it work.

Journal- Final two sessions

Journal- End Game

We followed up the lead she gave us and invaded the warehouse lair of the fiendish Carlott. It was clearly a trap, but we had no choice but to spring it. Six archers appeared above us and began to rain arrows down on us. I was able to get two quick kills right away, but then they began to target me more seriously making it more difficult for me to aim. Ulfred charged the door in an attempt to break it down, but failed and was struck down by an arrow. Volkrad took an arrow to the head and collapsed unconscious as well. Luckily Furdok and Konrad managed to get up to where the snipers were and began to engage them, allowing me to finish off the last couple of archers. Carlott then appeared, but fled when she saw her thugs were being cut down. I pursued her, but she got away. Still, her cult was smashed and posters of her face are now plastered all about town, so I’m sure her capture is only a matter of time.

Luckily, neither Volrad nor Ulfred were seriously injured; I was able to use my healing arts on them and they recovered satisfactorily. We then went home to rest from a night of conflict. The next day we went to see Maximillian Saer for the first time and got some relatively useful information, most pertinent of which was that he had had an affair with Klara Roban. We spoke to her as well, but she was completely intransigent and went so far as to imply that we were chaotic ourselves.

We went back to our inn, and after a little while the thief we had tracked down earlier, Solveig Thudrin, came to talk to us. She offered us the information that the same person who had hired her had also hired a man she knew named Andreas who also hung out at the Cockpit. She was very nice and gave us this information for free. Perhaps she felt guilty about robbing us? It’s hard to tell. You think you have these Men figured out, and they go and do something completely unexpected.

So we went to talk to Andreas who told us that the man who had hired him had gone by the name of Master Helsig, and had an office at the Empire House! Andreas had hauled several crates across town for him, through a side door there at the Empire House and to an office inside. He was payed well and never knew what was inside. We decided to investigate this lead next.

Knowing Lord Frederick knows EVERYONE who is anyone is ALtdorf, we went to see him yet again in order to secure entrance to the Empire House. This proved to be very easy, and we followed the directions that Andreas had given us to the side door he had gone through and thence to the office.

Except it wasn’t an office, it was a broom closet. Some of us began to have a sneaking suspicion that we’d been had. I was not sure myself, but Ulfred suggested we look for a secret door within the closet. To be honest, I thought that idea was silly…I mean, it seemed unreasonable to assume that there was some hidden chamber within the seat of Altdorf’s law enforcement center. And yet, once he made the suggestion, I rather halfheartedly stepped in to the closet and glanced around for the tell-tale sign of a hidden door.

To my surprise, there was one there, clear as day. To me anyway, the others did not seem to see it. I don’t know why, but I seem to be better than the Men and the dwarf at finding things concealed. Perhaps it comes of my life in the forest, where everything you need to survive or which is trying to kill you is usually well-hidden. You must learn to see the inobvious or you won’t see much of anything for long.

Once I pointed it out though, Ulfred saw it right away though it wasn’t until I pulled it open that the others could really see it. Behind it was a set of stone stairs leading down into a large chamber festooned with blasphemous symbols and a perfidious altar. While the others went to explore it for clues, I stood watch at the foot of the stairs in case someone stumbled upon us. Which, someone did.

Or rather, I should say, something. A demon appeared in a burst of flame at the top of the stairs and flew shrieking down the steps at me. I shouted to Volkrad to run, but he apparently did not see what I had seen and stood confused, only turning at the last minute as the fiend swooped at him. Luckily he ducked its claw and managed to stumble out of its way as Furdok and Konrad courageously charged it head on. Poor Lord Frederick, however, was not prepared for his first encounter face to face with Chaos, and fled as far as he could get to the other side of the room. Ulfred ran with him, determined to make sure Lord Frederick was safe and unharmed before he returned to bravely face the menace.

Now veteran daemonslayers, we five used every means at our disposal to quickly dispatch the creature, though several were dearly wounded in the process. Still, when the battle was over we stood victorious. I quickly began to see to the various injuries.

While I was doing so, that foul Bright Mage Wolfgang Shennect crept down the stairs and came upon us, tossing flaming death at Furdok, Konrad, and Ulfred! I knew he was evil! I knew it! Somehow, the three managed to survive the onslaught, and I began to shower Wolfgang with arrows while they gathered their wits about them long enough to charge him to prevent him from casting anymore of his flaming balls. His magic was powerful, however, and most of our blows seemed to do little or no damage to him. Soon, he was attempting to end Furdok’s life with a magical flaming blade he summoned.

With every spell he cast, Lord Fredrick was forming a crafty idea in his head. Finally he rushed over to the altar and smashed a small idol into pieces which he had seen there. Immediately, all of Wolfgang’s spells ended, and without them he was easily dispatched to his deserved reward. Apparently, the Lord had noticed that every time Wolfgang cast, the idol’s eyes would glow, and had rightly determined it to somehow be the source of his power. We congratulated him on his first victory over the forces of evil!

Flush with this achievement, he offered us the use of his manor house to rest and recuperate in for the remainder of our stay in Altdorf, which we gladly accepted. The next day Johann Shmidt came to see him. Looking back on what I have written before, I see that I neglected to mention him. We met him on a previous visit to Lord Frederick’s, and found him to be adventuresome but somewhat shallow. At first when I heard his name I thought he was the man we had met at the Three Feathers, but he was not. Apparently there are two Johann Shmidts!

Anyway, he was looking for action, and so we had invited him along with us but had, on that particular day, failed to find anyone who wanted to kill us (somehow). So he had left us rather in a huff. On this day, after the Lord regaled him with the tale of our various exploits the previous days, he was once again eager to join us. He mentioned that he had known adventurers before (adventurers? Is that really what we are? What a strange idea…I did not set out to have an adventure. I never have. Adventure, if that is indeed what you would call this non-stop attempt by the tides of Chaos to slay us, has just kind of happened to me. Us. I think most of us would rather be safe at home drinking ale or reading a tome. But alas, destiny seems to have other plans for us.) which made me perhaps wonder if he did not know the person we were seeking who had the ritual which could destroy the dagger.

By great luck, he did! Finally we managed to track down at least one of the people who had spent time traveling with the Kin from Ulthuan we had heard about. He told us he knew a Gabrielle Marsner, an Amethyst magister, who had indeed been part of such a group not too long past. We went to speak with her, and she told us that she did indeed have such a ritual and was willing to help us destroy the dagger.

The only obstacle which remained was Gottri Hammerfist, the insane dwarf (to be clear, I mean MORE insane than the average dwarf) witch hunter. We had to get him out of the way, and the only thing that seemed reasonable was to have him committed to someplace where Shallya could ease his mind of it’s burdens. However, that would require Klara.

She was firmly in Gottri’s court, but after giving it some thought I decided to try a desperate gamble in order to sway her to our point of view. I had to go see her alone, but for some reason Furdok demanded I give him 20 gold crowns for the privilege. See what I mean about their sanity? Well, I rather understood where he was coming from actually which really worries me. He was trying to make a point about trust…mainly, he did not trust me to make the right call with Klara. So I guess he was willing to trust me with the task if I was willing to trust him with my money. Gold means a lot to them, so I guess it was a big deal that I handed it over. I really don’t care about it too much, honestly, but in any case I was confident I could see this thing through successfully.

I went to see her, and I’m afraid I will have to keep the details of our conversation to myself for now, just in case someone reads this. Suffice it to say that she and I shared some things which made her see things in a new light. Once I told her that Gottri was claiming the entire Light College was a nest of cultists, she finally agreed he could use some “rest”, and agreed to set things in motion.

Unfortunately, Lady Baern stepped right in the way, preventing it from going through. After some desperate discussion amongst ourselves, we convinced Lord Frederick that the only way to get her to sway on this would be to give her a medal to get her the recognition she believed she deserved. We went to see her and informed her, obliquely, that if she were to cease to be an obstacle in Gottri’s remission to a Shallyan asylum, she would be awarded a medal in a public ceremony at the Gorgon Club along with several others who had gloriously thwarted the forces of chaos. She ate it up, and soon had agreed to allow Gottri to get some “rest”.

Finally, we got the dagger from Messner and delivered it and the things needed for the ritual to Gabrielle in the old cemetery. It was a long ritual, and we brought along Johann in case the dagger tried to bring help to prevent it’s destruction. Luckily, the only thing it could manage was another daemon, this one seemingly less difficult to slay than the one we had destroyed in Middenheim. Johann was no use, however, as he fled screaming from it at first sight. We killed it of course, but I can’t help noting that the ritual Gabrielle cast to destroy the dagger had nearly the exact same result, perceptually anyway, as the ritual which Liebnitz used to release the demon from the skull. We killed that demon, but were told the essence still survived and was loose in the world. Is the dagger’s essence truly destroyed, or has that escaped as well?

In any case, it seems certain that the third artifact lies in the path of our destiny as well. The questions are where is it, what is it, and who has it? Though I long to get out of this city, I fear we may be here for a while as those questions are answered. Meanwhile, I worry about the cultists which escaped us. Somebody burned down Gottri’s house, and the thing which disturbs me is that it happened after Wolfgang’s death. We had told him Gottri was standing in the way of our obtaining the dagger, and I would have expected a fiend like him to try to kill Gottri to get him out of the way, and fire would certainly be his modus operandi. So is there another corrupt Bright Mage out there who did not realize his Master had been killed?

You can’t trust anyone who works so closely with the winds of Aqshy, and now Volkrad has become one of them. I worry a great deal about this. I will need to keep an eye on him, for I fear that he may be led astray by the passions of fire in the same way Wolfgang was. I hope that he can contain the destructive urge which is such an integral part of the Lore of Fire.

Yoohoo, I'll make you famous!

Journal—Breakthroughs!

The new day started like any other. At first, it appeared to me that it would be another pointless round of talking to people who didn’t really have any idea what we were on about, or worse yet were secretly plotting to kill us. Actually, some of them may be, it’s hard to tell. However, Konrad, Volkrad and I went off to go interview some people in order to get some opinions on the character of Magister Messner, who has been greatly maligned by the witch hunting dwarf and his friends. Ulfred and Furdok went to go talk to the dwarf again for some reason, and then I believe back to the temple of Sigmar’s records, where Furdok apparently finally came to the realization that he has no idea how to read.

Our day was much much more fruitful. We talked to Lord Frederick again, who gave the idea of Messner being aligned with chaos very little credence, and then recommended we speak to Theodora about it as well as a Jade Magister named Guillaume. He was of the opinion that they could put our fears about Messner to rest, and in this he was correct.

Not only did Theodora, the ex-witch hunter, soundly and definitively denounce the notion of Messner being chaotic, she also finally gave us the story on what Lady Bairn did when she “single handedly” brought down a Chaos cult. It was not impressive, and basically involved an accident combined with fortuitous coincidence. Still, we decided to make sure, and proceeded to consult Magister Guillaume.

He was also very helpful. He told us that he believed it unlikely in the extreme that the White College would put a wizard in charge of the safe keeping of chaotic artifacts without thoroughly vetting him for any signs of chaotic leanings. He suggested that, should we come clean to Messner about our intentions vis a vis the dagger, he would probably be more forthcoming about it’s whereabouts, and in this he was correct. Furthermore, he informed us that he had a ritual which could cleanse the dagger. The downside was that the ritual required an intelligent being to willingly sacrifice their life in order to accomplish it. Still, it was something.

After that we went to see Messner again, where Volkrad spoke to him and told him our true reasons for seeking the dagger and what was at stake. After some time, we seemed to convince him of our sincerity and he informed us that, yes indeed, the dagger was within the Order’s vaults. However, he was not willing to give it to us unless we could show him proof that we had a ritual that would actually destroy it, and that we were willing to go through with. Also, we had to somehow get Gottri off his back. He was quite aware of the dwarf’s insane hatred for him, and told us that if he found out that he was releasing chaos artifacts from the vaults he would not hesitate in the slightest to have Messner burned at the stake. He needs us to get Gottri out of the way before he can do anything (no, not kill him).

Returning to the Burning Chair, we informed our comrades of our success, and then shortly afterwards were summoned by messenger to a meeting at the Burning Table where we were confronted by Wolfgang, the Bright mage we had accompanied on the road here and who we suspected of having arranged the robbery of our rooms at this very Inn.

He threatened us with calling the witch hunters on us, saying he suspected us of being involved with chaos, but was willing to let us defend our innocence to him. Which we did, but there were several things wrong with this scenario. First, he had absolutely no evidence of any of us cavorting with the Ruinous Powers, since we in fact do not, and had no such damning evidence in hand when he had our rooms tossed. Therefore it seems odd he would still accuse us. Furthermore, he pretended no knowledge of the burglary, even though we gave him every chance to come clean about it without actually telling him we knew he had done it. We mentioned that Volkrad’s grimoire had gone missing, and had he been a true friend he would have brought it back to us or at the very least told us where it was. Instead he feigned ignorance. If he had good intentions when investigating us, I believe he would have come clean about the theft.

Finally, once we explained what we were doing, he seemed so quickly to accept our innocence that it seems unlikely he ever doubted it to begin with. He offered up his own ritual to destroy the dagger, one which seemed infinitely easier than the one Guillame told us of. If it is real, it’s a boon, but what if he just wants to get us to bring him the dagger so he can steal it, or worse yet release the demon from within? We told him we would meet him later to discuss it.

It was shortly after that our snitch from the Three Beards came and informed us that the lady we were looking for was currently there! This day just kept getting better! We rushed over there and, sure enough, located her in the crowd.

She saw us too, however, and quickly made her way outside, with us hot on her trail. She led us on a merry chase through the slums of Altdorf, finally losing us in an alley in a rough area on one of the river islands. I was able to trail her to a “plaza” where we lost any sign of her. Among the buildings surrounding the plaza were two warehouses. In my experience with cultists, it seems to me they tend to hide in secret basements hidden in warehouses or taverns, and so I decided to investigate the two buildings, choosing one at random in which to begin.

There was nothing at all inside, but when we emerged we found that Furdok was being shot at. He had stayed outside, watching the bridge which led to the next island, and was being hit with arrows. I located the woman doing the shooting and put an arrow of my own in her arm, at which she fled.

We followed her, suspecting that we may be being led into a trap. We were right of course. We finally cornered her in a small cattle market, where we were jumped by three mutants and a man using dark, sinister magic. I took to the rooftop to make sure they could not escape out the back door, if there was any. It turned out there was not, but it was a great position from which to attack our attackers from. Unfortunately, I could not see the woman with the bow from where I was at, and she wounded Volkrad quite dearly. I could see the warlock from where I was, but the angle was such that I could not get a shot at him. He, however, was free to cast his evil magics upon my companions. Finally he came out into the open in order to use one of his fiendish spells upon Konrad at close range, but before I could do anything about it the woman broke cover and began to shoot at me. One of her arrows struck me a glancing blow on my side, but I put a couple more of my quarrels into her and she collapsed, unable to continue. Volkrad was able to take down the warlock with one of his mighty dart spells, and we had won the day. At first, we thought the warlock had succeeded in killing Konrad, but it turned out he was still breathing and I was able to save him with some quick application of some of the medicinals I carry with me.

I then turned to the archer, who lay dying on the floor of the market, her blood staining the hay red. I offered the use of some of the same remedies I had used on Konrad if she would tell us where the woman who had hired her was hiding. The archer informed me of the locale, and to my not-so-great surprise, it was the second warehouse, the one I had not gotten around to searching. At that point I was in something of a dilemma. I had suggested to her I would heal her, but I had not actually promised her. She was detestable and in league with Chaos, so I was quite hesitant to follow through and actually help her. Still, if the information she gave us was true, it would be only just to help her (though turn her straight over to the witch hunters afterwards, which would render the aid moot). Thankfully she ended my quandary by dying before I completely made up my mind.

Journal: 2 sessions worth

Journal- The search begins

It has been a few days since I have been able to find time to write in my journal, and there have been many events and people rushing by in that short span. I usually try to write at night while my companions are sleeping when I have plenty of spare time, but that has proved to be impossible of late. Every time I settle in for the night, some man or dwarf (usually dwarf, oddly enough) comes rushing in to tell me we’ve been robbed or attacked by chaos demons. They make fun of me for sleeping in the stable with Stormweather, but so far nobody has made off with my belongings or tried to suck out my vital fluids. I tried to tell them that cities are bad news, but they don’t listen. If I had my druthers, we’d be camping in the forest outside of Altdorf, but I think the best I can do is convince them to stay in a different inn where hopefully nobody will know where we are.

But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. As I said, we have been in ALtdorf for several days now, and accomplished much and nothing at all. As for the dagger we seek, no sign have we uncovered. Every well we visit in hopes of gaining some indication of it’s whereabouts proves dry. The first day we visited the Celestial College where Volkrad paid his license fee and spoke to a Magister to help point us in the right direction. Oddly, I can’t recall exactly what the college looked like, although the windows and mirrors were very shiny and clean. The Magister, Dieter Klemperer, indicated to us that the College of Light stored many dangerous artifacts of Chaos in a secret vault and we should talk to them. He also gave us the names of a couple of other highly placed people who may know people who may know something.

We split up for a bit, sending Volkrad to speak to the White Magister while the rest of us hobnobbed with the “important people” in town. Oddly, the noble Lord took a liking to us and provided us with several leads. What followed was a series of visitations to various dignitaries interspersed with attempts upon our lives by various threats both natural and unnatural. In order to lessen confusion, I will summarize the results of our conversations in a simple fashion before proceeding to the parts where someone attempts to do us harm.

The results of our investigations were thus:

The White Wizard claimed no knowledge of the dagger.

Apparently there was a group of people in Altdorf some indeterminable amount of time in the past who had fought cults here and knew some ritual which was capable of destroying chaos artifacts. Of them we can find little trace except the note that they had a High Elf with them who has since returned to Ulthuan (good riddance).

The Lady Bairn apparently single handedly defeated a chaos cult in her youth, though no details about this victory are available. She is intolerably snobbish and snooty which leads me to believe she may have been friends with the High Elf though she denies this.

A dwarven witch hunter named Gottri claims that all the white wizards are chaotic and should not be trusted. This may mean the magister Volkrad spoke to was lying about not having the dagger. However the dwarf was also, let me see if I can remember how Konrad put it, “completely off his nut”.

There are no records at either the temple of Ulric or Sigmar with any mention whatsoever of the priest who wrote the letter which first brought the dagger to our attention. However, we do have the name of a priestess of Sigmar that we have yet to speak to who is well connected to witch hunters in this city.

There are also a few other people we have leads on but have yet to speak to.

Now, the first night of our investigations ended with us in the inn’s bar, having dinner. A messenger boy delivered a letter to us, which I then opened there at the table. A daemon appeared out of thin air and immediately set about trying separate Konrad from his limbs. Luckily it was not a big daemon and proved to be little trouble for our battle tested group. I myself declined to fight the thing, turning instead to pursue and question the boy who delivered the tainted letter.

After some questions and bribes, it became apparent to us that he was not complicit in the attack but had been hired by an unknown woman of singular description to deliver said note. It was near the 3 Beards tavern, and so we resolved to investigate and see if we could find this woman there and get her to explain to us why she was sending us missives filled with chaos spawn. That night, however, she eluded our grasp.

The next night was the robbery. We, or I should more properly say they, returned to the room to find it ransacked, though only Volkrad’s hard won grimoire had been stolen. It was at that time where we began a rather informal policy of working in shifts, whereby Furdok and Konrad were on night duty, Volkrad and Ulfred on days, and somehow I was on call for both daily and nightly business. Apparently the men equate “doesn’t need to sleep” with “doesn’t need to rest, or take a well-deserved break, or even just take five minutes to clear one’s head and try to forget how bad this stupid city smells all the time”.

In any case I admit that it was my decision to track down the robbers that very night rather than letting the trail go cold. Questioning the innkeeper revealed that a disturbance had occurred in the bar that evening, a row started by a bald dwarf and a huge hulking Norscan. Even given the difficulties of tracking someone through the filthy but well traveled streets of Altdorf, trailing this pair proved remarkably easy. We ended up at a seedy riverside pub where Furdok and Konrad questioned the two, and discovered the thief was a tall woman with a scar named Solveig Thudrin. At first I thought she may have been the same woman who sent us the demon-laden epistle, but the descriptions did not match. She was to be found at a barbaric arena known as the Cockpit, but the place was closed by the time we got there. However an employee there, when properly motivated, provided us with information about Solveig which enabled us to find her the next evening.

In the meantime, we tried to find this other woman as well, but she proved far more difficult to track down. We ended up hiring a young man whose job was to sit in the 3 Beards and drink all day and tell us if anyone fitting the description of the woman showed up there.

It was actually on our way from the 3 Beards to the Cockpit that the four thugs set upon Ulfred, Volkrad, and I. Ulfred and I caught sight of them as they lunged from the alleyway, and quickly drew our blades to defend ourselves. Ulfred, brave as ever, delivered a telling blow to the first thug which immediately set him to flight. I also delivered a sword blow to one, but he was braver than his companion and returned with a nasty wound of his own to my side. Volkrad was caught flatfooted, but his luck was with him as his assailant stumbled over some trash on the way out of the alley and was unable to strike him.

After that we made short work of them, especially Ulfred who decapitated one with a single mighty swing of his halberd. Volkrad was wounded, but managed to cast a spell of slumber upon his attacker which then allowed us to question him and find out that it was the same woman who had sent us the daemongram who had hired them to bring her our heads. Luckily, our wounds were not serious and I was able to patch them up quickly.

Solveig we found at the Cockpit as promised, and after talking to her we determined that she was not hired by the woman who was quickly becoming our nemesis, but by a man in disguise calling himself “Dieter”. She took us to where she had met with him, and to our surprise Volkrad recognized the burnt out ruins as being on or near the grounds of the Bright College. Solveig informed us that she had been hired to search our rooms for anything bearing suspicious arcane or chaotic natures and deliver them here to this place. The book was the only thing she found which had possibly matched that description, and as it happened we actually located the grimoire discarded carelessly among the debris. Also nearby was a scrap of orange-yellow robe, a sign that it had in fact been a Bright Magister who had done this.

Putting two and two together, I deduced that the culprit must have been Wolfgang, the wizard we had met on the road from Middenheim to Altdorf. Volkrad thinks perhaps it was a frame job, and this cannot be discounted as it was not entirely difficult to track down the evidence. However, I am not convinced of this. To me it seems more like skullduggery perpetrated by someone unfamiliar with the general methods of skullduggery, which is to say done poorly and amateurly. To be honest, part of the reason I think this is because I probably would have made the same mistakes.

Reasonably sure of the perpetrator, I now must wonder about his motives. Was he suspicious of us as being allied with chaos, given the way we seemed to attract beastmen on our travels here? Or is he allied with chaos himself and looking to advance his own agenda somehow? This remains to be seen.

I shall close this chapter with an account of an event which I was not myself a witness to, the attack which has led me to suggest a change of location. Apparently the rest of them were set upon in the night by some kind of ghostly vampiric entity. The bizarre descriptions I received varied tremendously but the general accounts indicate a floating cloud of screaming faces with blood sucking tentacles protrubing from it. However, the odd thing about this creature was that it was completely invisible and ethereal unless viewed in a mirror. It had nearly killed Ulfred and Volkrad, and driven Konrad to brink of death or madness, before it’s nature was discovered and they were able to dispatch it. Only by viewing it in the mirror and using that perspective to attack it were they able to save themselves from certain doom.

What would I have done had they all been killed? I don’t know for sure. All alone, I doubt I could stay in this stinking urban morass. Maybe I could scrounge together enough money from their belongings to hire some people to continue the search, but how could I trust them? I would rather go back to Middenheim. It’s still a city, but a better and less crowded place than this one.