Ruin's End, a Warhammer Fantasy 4th Campaign, session 2 - Help Wanted

After the rather confused handover of the artefact at the Triple Cross Inn (it ended up with the wrong High Elf) the group rescued a mage called Rosalinde. Narrowly avoiding an encounter with the city watch they gathered in an alleyway wondering what to do next. Rosalinde invited the group to her apartments with an offer to work for her. The group had accepted in spite of some serious worries about her intentions.

A pretty picture that has little to do with the gaming session.

Plaque of Quats
Rosalinde's apartments where right across the street from the Tower of Magnus where Ubersreik's garrison in housed. On the way there she told the group they had handed over the Plaque of Quats, an artefact that influences fate. As a magister of the Celestial College of Altdorf she suspected this artefact could be used to change predictions. She wanted to use it to protect The Empire from harm.

The kidnapped elf
Rosalinde confessed she had kidnapped the real high elf the group was supposed to meet. After learning this elf named Delsoton had bought the artefact she panicked. If he where to take the artefact to Ulthuan it would be beyond the reach of The Empire. On a whim she kidnapped the elf and took his shape to take possession of the artefact. She did not count on being betrayed by the innkeeper of the Triple Cross Inn. He overpowered her and locked her up in de cellar.

Rosalinde's apartments
Rosalinde's spatial apartments turned out to be completely ransacked. On closer inspection valuables where just thrown on the floor. Ronja, the group's wizard, saw traces of warpstone passing in the Aethyr. The room that had held the high elf Delsoton was empty. Looking out the window Ronja thought she saw dark shapes sneaking over the rooftops. Where they carrying a body?

Two arch-enemies, one room
Before everyone could turn in for the night a small altercation started between the witch Tillman and Barnard, the priest of Sigmar. Neither was willing to go to sleep before the other one was. Meanwhile the dwarf Gorgor got too drunk to reach a bed. She fell asleep on the couch. In the end Tillman snuck into a room, climbed out the window and carefully re-entered the apartment through another window. There he climbed onto a linen closet to fall asleep. As fate would have it Barnard chose this room at random and fell asleep on the bed. And so two arch-enemies spent the night in the same room.

Stepped pyramids in the jungle 
That night everyone had dreams about a stepped pyramid in the jungle. Gorgor was running through foliage trying to escape lizardmen. Ronja was barricading a room inside the pyramid. Drett was running up the steps, chased by arrowfire. Barnard was barricaded in a holy room while the door was being bashed in. Only Tillman was not chased by lizardmen. He entered a clearing in the jungle feeling as though his next choice would determine his life. Without making a conscious choice he was suddenly attacked by a fountain of corruption that took his own shape.

We await you by the Teufeltal Gate at midnight
The next day Gorgor woke on the couch. She found a dagger with a note stuck in the empty beer barrel in front of her. It said 'We know you have it. Hand it over or die! We await you by the Teufeltal Gate at midnight.'

Gathering information
During breakfast Rosalinde explained the properties of the Plaque of Quots again. She suggested the group should try and learn more about the origins of the plaque. She had some suggestions as she suspected it was from the fabled continent of Lustria. Ubersreik was the place of birth (and final resting place) of a discoverer called Humbert von Hartl. He had made a famous trip to Lustria. His grave might give some clues. Or maybe the library at the temple of Sigmar could be used to gather information.

Another pretty picture that has little to do with the gaming session.

The Merry Band Circus 
Another possibility was the Merry Band Circus. It was just outside of town and, according to Rosalinde's readings, a nexus of fate. She suggested the group check it out. Last - but not least - they could try to gain admission to the Von Bruner library. This wealthy family was governed by the head magistrate of Ubersreik. They had a bad reputation after rumors of chaos worship by family members started circulating,. The Von Bruner library however, was well respected.

To the circus
Everyone agreed to visit the circus first. The group rented a taxi-coach and set off. At the site of the circus, just outside the city gates, they discovered a threadbare circustent and well-worn gipsy carts. A yellow sign at the entrance stated 'Merry Band Circus'. Someone had tried (and failed) to paint over the words 'and menagerie'.

Skillful negotiations
A lady with a gross growth on her shoulder manned the till. Drett, the group's lawyer, heard the admission prices and went into negotiating mode. He managed to get silver access for the group at a serious discount. Everyone entered except Tillman. He decided to explore the terrain. Sneaking through the bushes to the gypsy carts he vast a spell. It failed and the crops on several fields around Ubersreik withered. Tillman tried again. He failed a second time causing all the buckles and cords on his clothing to spring loose. His pants hit the ground.

Silver tickets
The rest of the group entered the circus with expensive silver tickets. They saw a few stage hands quickly swap out rickety wooden chairs for rickety wooden chairs with peeling silver paint. They had front row seats. This was not as special as it sounded as the big top tent was empty but for a small group of drunken soldiers gambling in the back.

Clowns
A shrill sounding recorder accompanied ring master Ulrich Ehrenstein as he got on stage. He announced the appearance of clowns. Two clowns in moldy costumes entered the tent and climbed drunkenly on stage. One hit the other with an inflated pig's blather. The other reacted by punching him on the nose. The two got into a serious fight and two strongmen had to pull the clowns apart. The group recognized the two strongmen. They had accompanied the Delsoton they gave the Plaque of Quats to yesterday.

Tomatoes 
As the clowns where cleared of the shrill recorder announced the second act. Isenbert the Magnificent and his lovely assistant Ludwina. The assistent turned out to be the lady from the till, her growth in full view as her dress was cut very low. The first trick was an amazing disappearing act. It was not a success as it leaned on Ludmilla's beauty to distract the audience. Isenbert's feet sticking out from behind the curtain didn't help either. At this point Drett happily passed around the tomatoes he brought with him in case the entertainment was bad.

The guard arrives
As Drett was throwing tomatoes at Isenbert the city guard arrived. Due to excessive complaints and the risk of riots, the circus was ordered to pack up and leave Ubersreik immediately. Barnard and Ronja tried to use the confusion to get back stage. They saw the musician playing the recorder and stopped. It was their former companion Kylael. What was the count of Teufeltal doing playing a recorder here? He did not appear to recognize his friend Barnard. Barnard took him by the arm and dragged him along.

Moving
Outside was total chaos. With a suspiciously well practiced ease the gypsy carts where made ready for travel. Gorgor sprinted towards the wagons and peeked inside one of them at random. She saw the chest that contained the artefact. It was guarded by a man covered in feathers. Surprised Gorgor fell from the cart as it started moving.

A random picture of our gaming table.

Police brutality
Drett, Barnard and Ronja exited the big top tent and met up with Tillman. Drett cornered Ulrich to demand his money back. The ring master of the circus explained that there were no refunds. At that point the city guard joined the conversation. On request of Drett with his elevated social status they immediately started applying night sticks to the circus director.

Estellian stomach flue 
"My stomach," Gorgor cried out. She suffered a spontaneous outburst of Estellian stomach flue and ran back to the city. This distracted the city guard beating the circus director. Ulrich jumped up and ran for the carts. Way more sprightly then a man of his age should have been able to after that much brutality.

Mutilated bodies
As the circus cleared off, leaving the big top behind. Ronja checked the terrain. She saw a disturbance in the winds of magic at the edge of the terrain. Tillman joined her as she walked over to take a look. The two found a pile of rotting bones. A quick investigation showed most of them where human and the meat was quite possibly chewed off. Ronja detected even more dark magic energy emanating from the ground. Digging she opened the graves of two beheaded elves. Both covered in multiple stab wounds. After Tillman and Ronja finished puking they took a last look, discovering two elven skulls covered in chaos runes.

Pursuit 
After Ronja and Tillman reported their discovery a city guard ran back to warn his commander. Drett commandeered the taxi coach and ordered a pursuit. The group caught up with the circus a little way off Ubersreik in the forest. They saw the magician Isenbert on the rear gypsy cart. He gestured and a purple-yellow-green bolt of energy flew their way, hitting the driver. His lifeless corpse slipped of the coach. Barnard prayed to Sigmar, and in answer a twin-tailed comet hit the gypsy cart holding Isenbert. Ronja tried some magic of her own, failed and copying Tillman earlier saw all her buckles and cords untie causing her dress to drop to the floor.

The witch and the priest
Tillman and Barnard jumped of the coach to continue pursuit on foot. Drett and Ronja tried to remove the carriage's horses from their harnesses. As they knew nothing of carts, horses, riding or basic animal care htis took some time. Meanwhile the witch and the priest rounded a corner and saw three overturned wagons. The one hit by Barnard  and two others blocked the road. The rest of the circus carts where moving on behind the road block. Tillman walked closer to the carts and saw a spark on a fuse moving towards them. He ran away as the three carts exploded behind him, leaving an enormous crater in the road.

Learning to ride
Drett and Ronja meanwhile had managed to get the horses loose from the carriage. Without any skill in riding whatsoever they jumped onto the barebacked horses. Drett slid down the other side of his horse, back onto the road and the creater bolted. Ronja managed to hang onto her horse, managing a speed slightly below walking. Sensing the pursuit was over, Tillman cast a very vile curse on the merry band circus. It was extremely successful but at the same time caused even more Ubersreik crops to rot on the fields.

Dice and a third edition GM screen as Cubicle7 has not produced a 4th edition GM screen yet.

Back to Ubersreik
A group of roadwardens appeared and set off in pursuit of the circus. The group decided to go back to Ubersreik. Barnard, still holding Kylael under his arm, Ronja and Drett decided to pay a visit to the Temple of Sigmar. Being a witch, Tillman decided to skip that visit and take care of Gorgor instead.

A professional witch hunter
In the temple Barnard met a witch hunter and explained about Kylael. They went to a interrogation room (torture chamber). The witch hunter explained he would have no problem finding out why Kylael was suddenly musician for a murderous band of misfits. He hung the poor man upside down  above a fire pit. Unfortunately he miscalculated the distance and Kylael died screaming. On the plus side his soul was supposedly saved. The witch hunter listened to Barnard's story and told him the dead man might have been a mutant. Occasionally these look just like someone you know, he said.

Academic credentials
Ronja and Drett entered the temple library, the biggest one in Ubersreik. There they had to convince Berthold the librarian of their academic credentials. Both lawyer and wizard had no problem doing that and were allowed to buy a membership. Searching the collections they found the 'Humbert Collection' on its own shelf in a niche that also featured an odd looking throne. The throne was very square, painted gold and covered in runes that looked a lot like the runes on the Plaque of Quats.

The Humbert Collection
The Humbert Collection itself consisted of a number of books on Lustria and two copies of a three volume set called 'Observations of Lustria' by Berthold Spindler. One copy was signed 'to my good friend Humbert, you saved my life, Berthold'. The other was signed 'Dietmar, now you can disagree with me from a distance, Berthold'. Dietmar's version of the 'Observations' was full of scribbled notes in the margins stating 'heresy', 'hubris', 'nonsense' and the like.

Jungle dreams 
Ronja and Drett decided to take some time to study the Humbert Collection. Barnard wanted to talk to the other priests and initiates of Sigmar about jungle dreams as he picked up a lot of people had had them. Tillman was back in the apartments with Gorgor, making some soup for the sick dwarf.

My GM tools: dice, a notepad and a tablet with the plot on it.

GM's perspective 

Sometimes you expect around three scenes in a gaming session and only manage one. This was one of those times where the opposite happened. The group was very enthusiastic and everything went very smoothly. Luckily I have most of the campaign written out by now, so I had no problem keeping the evening going. Keeping track of all the plot-elements is a different story. I mistakenly swapped the Plaque of Quats and the kidnapped high elf. Luckily thanks to leaky player memories I could retcon that by simply changing the elf into a plaque in the session summary (above with the feathered guard). 

Kylael

It should be no surprise that the Merry Band consists of a bunch of chaos worshipping mutants. I had a lot of fun using the second edition Tome of Corruption to roll up mutations for the band. I briefly used Slaves to Darkness but that mutation table has a tendency to get out of hand very quickly. The recorder player looking like Kylael was mutated to look like the exact copy of a random person in the world. I decided on a former party member to give it some spice. That worked and it was quite a lot of fun to let the mystery develop (up until the witch hunter fumbled his interrogation roll).

Social status

I think social status is a real important element of the Warhammer Fantasy world. The new rules give it a very nice place, making it easy to let the story flow around it. It was quite a change from the norm to have the city guard take orders from a player instead of the other way round. I will be doing a lot more with this mechanic in the future.

Estellian stomach flue 

To wrap up, a quick word on Estallian stomach flue. This is in-joke with our group. It started while playing through the classic Enemy Within campaign. I recall one player's character drinking some Estellian wine in game at the end of a session. The player couldn't make it to the next gaming session As an excuse for the absence of his character we decided he had Estellian stomach flue and was lying in his bed in the inn. Ever since 'the bug' has infected player after player. Sometimes forcing one to stumble out of a dungeon mumbling about stomach cramps as the previous flue-victim miraculously finds his place with the group again. In short Estallian stomach flue is code for an absent player.