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.

The Next thing

This is the next thing that I'll surely be trying to kill you all with.

Check out Esoterrorists.

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.

Log, Log, it's big it's heavy it's wood

Journal- New Discoveries

It would not be my life or the life of my companions if things settled down with the destruction of the dagger. There is of course one last artifact left to be destroyed, and it seems as though Sigmar or Ulric or both has determined that we are the people for the job. I’m not sure why. In fact, as near as I can determine, none of my companions are particularly interested in the worship of either of those two gods. I of course am pledged to the gods of my kin, who have protected us and our forest home since the time of the sundering. In fact I find it very disturbing that the human gods have placed their mark upon me. I am not against upholding their struggle against Chaos by any means, but I feel that I am losing connection with my own gods. Perhaps they even find it insulting that I bear this mark and this task from these upstart godlings. I need to spend more time in worship and contemplation and hope for some kind of answer from Isha and Kurnous. In order to do that, I shall have to endeavor to get out of this city and spend some time seeking in the wilderness.

As for my other companions, Volkrad is pledged to Verena, Furdok to whatever rude dwarven gods he worships, and Ulfred seems to have invented his own god to worship. I’m not sure about Konrad…he doesn’t seem very religious at all. He has never really mentioned Sigmar or Ulric however, so if he does revere them he keeps it to himself. So why then would they choose us? I would think that if those gods had a task they needed performed, they would seek out a trusted worshipper or priest and give them the task. Certainly I would hope that if Isha or Kurnous ever had a sacred task they needed discharged that they would come to me before serving notice to some heathen band of impious humans (or gods forbid, a dwarf).

Perhaps that is why Noddin was chosen to present to us the next step in our pilgrimage. Though I have not known Noddin long enough to determine if he is a devout follower of the Imperial gods, I can think of no other explanation for the way in which he was pointed to us by Sigmar, if indeed it was he who sent him the dreams which led him to us. So let me say a little bit about him.

Noddin Alcapse is a young indigent street performer, not exactly what you would consider to be heroic material. In many ways he does not fit in with the rest of my human companions…even his name is odd. It was my impression that Imperial men all had names that ended in “rad”, but apparently this is not the case. I suppose it is possible that he is not entirely of Imperial lineage however…I know little of his heritage. As I said, he is not of a heroic mien, unlike Konrad who has dedicated himself to the protection of the innocent or Ulfred who is the very definition of heroism and sacrifice. Nonetheless, a dream was sent to him which seemed to indicate the location of the third artifact of the Red Flayer, a chalice which (if we are interpreting the signs correctly) lies hidden beneath a ruined monastery.

Lord Frederick, who has been unbelievably generous in his hospitality and aid to us, introduced us to the young Noddin who told us of the dream and the sign which he had received from within it, a written account of a man’s discovery of the chalice which somehow was pulled physically from the dream. Upon shaking hands with Konrad, the Mark of Unity was transferred onto Noddin’s flesh, a clear sign that he has been chosen by the gods to aid us in our quest. After a little bit of delving into the history of the monastery, we made plans to travel there and investigate taking along Noddin, Ulfred’s new valet, and a young Sigmarian initiate named Sigurd who we thought should bear witness to the state of the abbey which has not been visited since it’s destruction in the Storm of Chaos.

Along the way we were predictably set upon by a small group of Beastmen who predictably nearly killed Ulfred despite the new chainmail he had acquired. The rest of us escaped with minor injuries. I guess chain is not enough to protect Ulfred…it seems I shall need to work on getting him some plate armor. Maybe that will keep him healthy. Though I doubt it. As I feared, Volkrad has become a little worrisome now that he has turned to the red winds of magic. Whereas before he used his magic with a sense of reluctance and reserve, the glee with which he called fire down upon the beastmen was undeniable. Not that he was wrong to assail them suchly…I just wish it didn’t seem like he enjoyed his power so much. I don’t know, perhaps I am reading too much into it.

In any case, we have reached the abbey and are making preparations to investigate. It seems abandoned, however, so I don’t expect much trouble. I will resume my account of the delving once I return to Stormweather.

Create your own Southpark character

Need i say more?
sp_game.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Fantasy Congress

Well, I did it.

I set up a Fantasy Congress league, because it may be the most ridiculous thing I've ever played.

If you would like to participate (and don't ask - I too have no real idea how it works) go to www.fantasycongress.com and follow sign up directions.

Our league is called Iowa Congressional Confederacy. The password is password.

It'll be a blast.

Goodies Galore

I went back and found the list of goodies y'all requested, and I believe Lord Frederick was more than happy to grant them all.

Likewise, owning warehouses will allow me to try out the new Trade rules from the Companion. I haven't looked at them enough to know if they'll work or not, but we'll see.

Finally, I went back and forth in my head a few times yesterday about encumbrance and the Sturdy Talent and the errata put out by Black Industries. The errata says that the Sturdy Talent makes the encumbrance of any armor you wear zero.

I'll leave it to you all to decide and (perhaps) revoke a decision I made last night. Which seems more fair to you - everyone has the same carrying capacity (eliminating the Dwarf advantage) but Sturdy makes your armor 0 encumbrance

or

make the Sturdy Talent the reason a Dwarf can carry twice as much as anyone else to start with, double the carrying capacity of anyone else who buys the Sturdy Talent through a career, and armor counts as its usual encumbrance value.

I'm leaning towards option #2 as opposed to option #1, although I said the opposite last night.

More funny vids

Go to my myspace page and watch the video clip, it gives a new meaning to "role-playing."




Watch "Heroes" you fools!

Bad Math

at http://www.livescience.com/othernews/061025_vampire_debunk.html we find...

******************

A researcher has come up with some simple math that sucks the life out of the vampire myth, proving that these highly popular creatures can't exist.

University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou's work debunks pseudoscientific ideas, such as vampires and zombies, in an attempt to enhance public literacy. Not only does the public believe in such topics, but the percentages are at dangerously high level, Efthimiou told LiveScience.

Legend has it that vampires feed on human blood and once bitten a person turns into a vampire and starts feasting on the blood of others.

Efthimiou's debunking logic: On Jan 1, 1600, the human population was 536,870,911. If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by Feb. 1, 1600. A month later there would have been four, and so on. In just two-and-a-half years the original human population would all have become vampires with nobody left to feed on.

************

but this is bad math. Suppose every time the Vampire population reaches 20 or so, all but one of them are killed by angry villagers? Then vampires can exist.

Of course, this doesn't tell us where that first one came from on Jan 1, 1600....

Funny!

Did anyone ever go and watch the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny?

Anyway, I found a new video I thought was pretty funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFB8izX2Uks

A proposal

I've been looking at Google Groups Beta (cause it wouldn't be google if there wasn't a "beta" in the title.) I think it would be a better platform for us than Blogger. Here's why:

• it's built from the ground up for collaboration
• it runs more like a mailing list, you will get emails of the posts
• it allows for the creation of pages, things like the Diary could have their own page for us to edit and comment on together
• it has space for files to be uploaded also
• i think it's easier to navigate the comments from posts

Now there are reasons not to do this also of course:

• signing up for a new service might be a pain for some
• of course we have all our content here, although we could keep this page up as an archive
• it's a Beta so it might be a little wonky at first

I put a page up for an example to play in:

Iowa City Gaming

Visit this group

Let me know your thoughts or questions. If you want an invite to play with the group page a little more, let me know.

Mystery Chart

I think - let me stress "think" - that I solved the thing.

Pardon the messy appearance.

Anyone else come up with anything yet?

Sunday - Mike - Aftermath - Community theme
Monday - Elmer - Twilight 2000 - Adventure theme
Tuesday - George - Chivalry & Sorcery - Justice theme
Wednesday - Bart - AD&D - Character Stories theme
Thursday - Kate - Boot Hill - Thinking Things Through theme

There's 2 hours of work that my employer will never have back...:)

Using Your Resources

I think you guys would benifit from posting the outlines you've made of the fairy tale, along with your assumptions about what maps to what. You could use this forum to check one another's thoughts, and find false assumptions.

The Ultimate Showdown!

...of Ultimate Destiny!

Only one will survive! Go here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/285267

and click "watch this movie"

For the Stressed-out Gamer

http://www.saab-stuff.com/pop.swf

Supper at Gaming this Friday

Susan's TV group is going to be meeting this Friday at the same time we are (they will be in the abittoir with the door closed, and have promised not to bother us). But the thing is, they always have dinner as part of their routine, between 5 and 5:30 but set up so that those who come late can still partake. This time it is a sandwich bar, if any of you are interested. Susan and I will provide some sliced turkey and some sliced salami plus two loaves of bread ( probably a multi grain and a pumpernickel), some cheddar cheese and such mustards, mayos and such as we have on hand. Anyone that wants to kick in additional sandwich fixings or side dishes is welcome to, but not required. (Stock for the magic fridge is also an option for anyone who feels the need to bring something).

Well well well

Turns out I had the diary last night after all.

I blame my dice luck for my failed Search roll.

(I even had the thing at the front of my folder so I wouldn't miss it. Impressive!)