 |
| Not appearing in this scenario: goblins, although at some point the orcs did drop a stone thrower from great height. |
Smoke on the horizon
Even though the entire party grew up in Teufeltal no one had ever seen the winery up close. Smoke plumes on the horizon predicted that no one would be seeing an (intact) winery today either. The group wanted to spur their horses on, but as no one had any formal training in riding they decided against it.
Fire, death and destruction
Arriving at the winery the group saw two buildings, both ablaze. One had been a big solid two story house with barred windows. Now every window had bent bars around man-sized holes. The smaller barn next to the building was open and surrounded by discarded and broken farming equipment. Kylael, ever observant, spotted a pile of bones and meat against the corner of the stone building. Blood spatters indicated the bones had been spat the walls. On the ground Kylael spotted the tracks of giants. He also noticed a man hiding in the bushes, quite close to a cave entrance with a bashed in gate.
A burning dwarf
While Kylael was ever observant, Gorgor was very much the opposite. She was sure she heard screams for help coming from the big stone building and ran inside. A few steps into the building she realized she made a mistake. There were no screams coming from the house and now she was on fire. The burning dwarf ran from the house. Outside the rest of the group used horse blankets to douse the flames. Even though her clothes were burned, the dwarf was lucky, her beard was only singed.
The man in black plate
Meanwhile Kylael discovered a man in black plate with golden mail hiding in the bushes. The heavily armored man had a sword with a golden hilt in a red scabbard on his belt. He introduced himself as Janus Jäger and told the group his wife, a mage named Otilla Jäger, had been kidnapped. Two giants had attacked the winery and Otilla had stormed out to fend them off. One of the giants had picked her up and stuck her in a provisioning bag on his belt. The rest of the inhabitants of the farm had been pulled from the building and eaten on the spot, their bones spat out like the grape seeds.
Follow the giants
As Janus knew where the giants had gone off to, and the group spotted cart tracks heading the same way, they decided to give chase immediately. They got on their horses and started a difficult trek into the mountains. While traversing the trails they managed to narrowly avoid an orc patrol. As no one in the group had any experience in animal handling their horse's neighing almost gave their position away. After that they decided to let the horses walk free, hoping they would return to the castle on their own.
 |
| Giants played an interesting part in this scenario. You don't want to go off fighting giants in the new Warhammer edition. It's rather unhealthy. |
Slightly slower without their horses, the group finally found the two giants resting near the gates of Karak Azgaraz. These gates were situated in a ravine. Orcs had thrown up a crude barricade blocking entrance to the ravine. A primitive two story tower had been erected behind the crude blockade. Hundreds of orcs surrounded the tower, sitting around campfires or in tents. More orcs were climbing down into the camp from both sides of the ravine. orc bodies littered the ground between the barricade and the gates of Karak Azgaraz proper. Apparently the dwarves where not inclined to give up their hold without a serious fight.
Otilla on the pyre
The party hid between a group of rocks on one side of the ravine. The checked the primitive tower. It was a crude construction held together by piled on timber, rocks, trees and sand. It had a door covered by a leather flap. On the top of it stood an (unlit) pyre with a woman tied to a stake at its center. Janus confirmed the woman was Otilla. An orc, firing small flashes of lighting from his eyes and green smoke from his ears, was dancing circles around her.
The secret entrance
A small distance from the tower the two giants where lounging against the rock wall. Each had a cart full of stolen wine to himself. Gorgor, a former resident of Karak Azgaraz, recognized a secret entrance hidden in the side of the ravine across from where the group was hiding. Unfortunately she had no key and did not know if there was a password to open the entrance. As the group had even less ideas on how to sneak past hundreds of orcs they decided to try their luck at the secret entrance. Perhaps they could get in and sit out the rest of this war in safety.
Kylael's doom
Kylael did not wait for the rest of the group, but set out on his own. Halfway across the ravine he slipped on some loose stones, fell on his ass and loudly dislodged bigger rocks as he tried to get back to his feet. Cursing and fully visible to an onlooking army of orcs, he climbed to his feet knowing he had one ace up his sleeve. He was not doomed to die in a ravine, his doom was to die in sight of a waterfall...
Waterfall?
...as he looked up, he realized he had slipped in the dried up bed of a small river and across from him was the telltale shape of a dried up waterfall. From the corner of his eye he saw a giant sprinting towards him. Was his doom on him? No! With more luck than deserved Kylael managed to dive between some large rocks, just as the giant made a grab for him. To the onlooking orcs it looked like Kylael had been scooped up and tucked into a pouch. As the duellist crawled on his belly to get distance between himself and the confused giant, the rest of the group used the distraction to cross the ravine.
An uncoordinated attack
The secret entrance to Karak Azgaraz turned out to be manned. Unfortunately the dwarves where not inclined to give the group access to their stronghold. They were willing to aid the group in their attempt to save the wizard. As the heroes made their way towards the makeshift tower, dwarven cannons and guns opened up on the orcs. As is their nature, the greenskins immediately jumped over the barricade for an uncoordinated counter-attack.
A conversation with a black orb
Meanwhile the black orb in Micky's pouch was vibrating. The halfling took hold of it and instantly felt like he was teleported to a weird void. He felt the presence of an overpowering will. It asked for status reports. A goblin voice reported that troops where ready to invade Schluesselschloss through hidden tunnels. A second goblin reported good progress for the main force through the Grey Mountains. A third goblin, recognizable as te leader of the spider tribe, reported his army was ready in the forest. Micky immediately wondered how this goblin had replaced his orb as the halfling was using one he had stolen from this creature. An orc with a french accent reported good progress for his troops. At that point Gorgor, using a piece of cloth as protection, took the orb from Mikcy, returning the halfling's senses back to reality.
I'm right behind you!
The group reached the tower where the shaman had apparently just stopped his rooftop dance to disappear downstairs. Janus told the group he was 'right behind them'. This was taken literally (and rightly so) and severely impacted his already low popularity with the group. Micky crept towards the tower's entrance and lifted the leather door (curtain). He spotted four gigantic orcs playing a game of dice. This inspired Micky to climb to the first floor instead of walking in. Kylael 'borrowed' a discarded siege ladder to ease the climb. In the meantime Drett took some time to boobytrap the entrance.
Another black orb
As Gorgor, Kylael and Micky climbed, the orc shaman started dancing again. On the first floor of the tower the group discovered the orc shaman's living space. A crude table held another black orb. Micky wrapped it in cloth and took it with him, swiping a small box of potions at the same time. Then he joined Gorgor and Kylael on the roof.
 |
| You say orc shaman and your players will hear 'shaman' automatically assuming it is a weak mage. They never quite grasp the orc part of the job description until it starts clobbering them. |
Arriving on the rooftop Gorgor took one look at back of the orc shaman and decided she'd never had a better chance to bum-rush an opponent. With a sprint she slammed into the orc's back, pushing him off the roof of the tower. This gave Kylael and Gorgor room to fight two enormous orc bodyguards that had managed to expertly fail in their duties (guarding the body of the shaman). Meanwhile Micky moved in and rescued Otilla from the pyre. At that point Janus climbed onto the rooftop. Ignoring the ongoing fight, he took full credit for the successful rescue. He was rewarded with an enthusiastic kiss from his wife, earning the couple points for utterly failing to help anyone.
The fallen shaman
Barnard managed to find the fallen shaman at the base of the tower. The orc was roaring and green smoke leaked from his ears. The initiate tried to finish the creature off, but the orc turned out to be rather hard to kill. From his apparently perfect ambush spot Drett heard the four orcs inside take the stairs, moving away from him. Frustrated he decided to run towards the fight between Barnard and the shaman.
Green lightning
As Drett moved in on the fight, the shaman disappeared in a puff of green smoke. He re-appeared on top of the tower. Kylael and Gorgor were just about ready to finish off the second orc here. Green lightning leaped from the shaman taking down Kylael and wounding Gorgor. Undeterred Gorgor leaped forward and took down the shaman, giving him a few proper extra hits to make sure he stayed down. Luckily for Kylael the halfling Micky stepped up and gave him some potions from the stash he took of Cenoc (the high-elf that died during the incident on the river barge). Janus took Otilla to the siege ladder and told her he would follow her. His sword still hung untouched from his belt.
Bum-rush, part two
Kylael had had it with Janus. Copying the bum-rush displayed by Gorgor he slammed into the armored figure pushing him off the building. Janus landed on the ground with a thud, shattering both his legs in the fall. As four huge and very fresh orcs entered the rooftop by the stairs, Kylael, Gorgor and Micky quickly descended the siege ladder. Pushing the ladder away they looked at the bleeding form of Janus. As a team they helped the 'unlucky' man by removing his armor to 'bind his wounds'. Unfortunately (cough, cough) they where too late and Janus died as the last pieces of armor where removed. In the meantime Barnard entered the bottom of the tower and managed to loot a chest with more armor while the orcs where distracted upstairs.
The gate closes
The group took off, taking a grieving Otilla with them. Looking back, they saw the two giants had almost finished smashing in the gates to Karak Azgaraz. The dwarves responded by deploying an age old defense mechanism that dropped a few thousand blocks of stone down in front of the gate, crushing both giants, a lot of orcs and sealing entrance to Karak Azgaraz for about a century.
Back to Teufeltal
A short conversation at the closed secret entrance followed. A voice on the other side promised the dwarves would send a few engineers to Schluesselschloss. With that knowledge (and yet another rejected request to be let in) the group moved back into Teufeltal. Otilla the mage had been found, but would the next attempt to gather reinforcements be as difficult? We'll find out in the next installment of Trouble in Teufeltal...
GM's perspective
 |
| Character sheets laid out, old edition game masters screen ready, tablet in place, now to fill my monster mug with some tea and we can begin. |
Writing investigative RPG scenario's
All sorts of interesting hints and tips could be found at the winery, culminating in some shock discoveries (dark magic, non-greenskin evil afoot) and a heinous betrayal. As I have learned through experience, the only thing worse then an investigative scenario is a caravan/travel scenario. To avoid the common misery of a failed investigation I used this excellent write-up on prepping RPG investigation missions on the Alexandrian. A very nice read with some excellent points and solutions.
The show must go on
Unfortunately I've been rather too successful in impressing a time is of the essence feel on my group. Despite the tracks, bloody remains, burning buildings, mysterious cave and definitively suspicious NPC hiding in the bushes (he even suggested they needn't look in the cave), the group took one look at the cart trails and walked right past my plans for the evening. Luckily most of the above scenario was planned out, it just lacked finesse (and detailed stats on the giants). Another spot of trouble was caused by my lack of a prepared map of the orc siege and the dwarven gate. This caused distances to change around a bit over the course of the evening.
Miserable sneak rolls can be fun (for the GM)
The miserable failure of a sneak roll by the duellist was a lot of fun, especially as the player declared nothing could happen because his doom was death by a waterfall. All humans in Warhammer Fantasy 4th get the talent Doomed on creation. Somewhere in their youth a priest has foretold how they will die. The player has to describe this death and if their actual death comes close to the description, they get to retain a lot of XP when building a new character. I never expected that particular mechanic in Warhammer to bring so much accidental fun to the table, but how could I resist dreaming up a dried up waterfall when opportunity presented itself?
Big mistake: allowing the escape of my player's reasons to stay
Another complication was my own dumb doing. By allowing the ship full of refugees to escape Teufeltal I've taken the incentive the players had to defend the castle away. Their family is quite safe in Ubersreik now, their houses are already burnt down and they dislike (almost) everyone in the castle. So they justly wondered why they shouldn't just enter Karak Azgaraz and sit out the war in safety. I decided to solve this with some of that famed dwarven suspicion of outsiders. Would you let excitable humans in while you are besieged by a potentially massive waaagh? The (planned) ton of rocks slamming down made it quite clear that this exit is not available to the players.
Magic in Warhammer Fantasy 4th is deadly
The last bit of fun was the fight with the big orcs and the shaman. Magic turns out to be very hard to cast, especially if you keep missing speak magic rolls for your mage. But if it goes of, it is horrendous. I almost killed two combat oriented player characters with one spell! I will be using more magic in the future. Luckily I planned the orc shaman out ahead of time, running a mage without proper preparation (for instance copying the basic rules of the spells to sit alongside the NPC) is essential to keep the flow of the story going. I think this is true for every RPG in the world.
The bestiary in Warhammer 4th makes monster preparation easy
For the orcs I used the bestiary in the back of the (digital preview copy of the) core rulebook. Here you find stats for most basic monsters and animals, humans and ogres, greenskins, undead and chaos servants. Creatures have some basic traits and you can expand upon this with a list of suggested extra traits, for instance I gave my forest goblins the 'arboreal' trait to reflect their expertise at fighting in the woods. I used a trait called 'big' to quickly turn regular orcs into Orc Big' Uns. I added Spellcaster to one Orc to turn him into a shaman, picked three Arcane spells for him and flavored these with green smoke and lightning for effect. Works a treat. I needed more time to read about wine production in medieval times to get my winery right than I needed to properly prep my NPC's.
Orcs Die Hard
One special mention should be made of the Die Hard trait all orcs have. Ever since the old Waaargh: Orks source book most GW/Black Library novels (especially the 40K ones) feature orcs that are unbelievably tough. They can reattach lost limbs with the help of some staples for instance. In one of the Ciaphas Cain novels a Necron blows an orc's leg off and the orc uses said leg to club the (surprised) Necron to the ground. Die Hard reflects this in the new fantasy rules. The trait states:
"No matter how hard the creature is hit, it gets back up. All Critical Wounds not resulting in death can be healed; just attach the requisite body parts to the correct places, perhaps with staples or large spikes to hold them in place, and it’s good to go. Even ‘death’ may be ‘healed’ if the appropriate parts, such as a lost head, are attached to the body. [followed by some rules to keep the getting back up in check]."I played this to include that the normal rules for going unconscious don't apply. No matter how many hits you score, orcs don't pass out. They lie prone on the ground and try to crawl away (or towards you). They get to test every turn to get back up (not an easy test for them, but a good reason not to ignore the downed ones). To kill an orc you have to score a number of critical hits equal to its Tough Bonus, five in the case of the Big 'Uns. Now scoring a critical on a prone target is easy, but it is hard work. The result was a rather grisly battle with players hacking away at downed orcs until they finally stopped moving.
The death of Janus
Last but not least was the death of Janus. A rather nasty move by one of my players. I did work very hard on making the party hate Janus and maybe they'll find out at some point that both he (and Otilla) where/are quite evil and the murder was an accidental smart move. They will also discover that the armor and the sword are rather impressive (and very nasty) artifacts in themselves. But that's for later. Right now I'll have to find some time to finish writing chapter two, especially as working out the details of this part of the scenario has created a few plot holes that need fixing...and I should find incentive for the players to defend the castle...ah being a GM is so much fun...
No comments:
Post a Comment