The Formal Record...

[Timf]

First session, or a Night in the Punnery.

A pair elves came wandering by. Well, they were to meet a noble adventuring party consisting of a human noble of holy orders, a Bretonnian questing knight errant, the noble's personal acquirer and the acquirer's minder. The elves are touring the Old World to see the effects of the recent Chaos invasion and contacts in the human world indicate this group are travelling across the Empire from Talabecland to Untergard in Reikland.

The meeting place was a Coaching Inn a days boat ride south of Gersdorf - the Inn of the Strutting Cock. The group assembled and made travel plans and food plans and checked out the other occupants of the inn. The usual suspects appeared to be present, and one poor unfortunate in an oubliette next to the privy. Our halfling minder wandered past on the way to the privy having refused the offer of the 1d cushion. The prisoner implored help in a case of mistaken identity, but his pleas were ignored for a more urgent call. That dealt with the halfling discovered he had added to the problems of the man in the oubliette and that was a lot of misery for a small halfling.

The prisoner claimed to have been roughed up by a bounty hunter while looking for work as an itinerant engraver. He indicated he was the son in law of a local mayor and pleaded for someone to fetch help in Gersdorf. With no urgent business a trip was made by a couple of the group to verify this while the rest lounged in the inn for a couple of days. After choosing the soup as a test of courage our brave Knight was suffering a 'leetle mal de mer' and spent some time in the privy adding to our prisoner's misery. The night was disturbed by our howls that made many nervous despite investigation by our brave Knight and his company with his glowing staff.. Queue more misery for Mr Man-in-the-pit. Bizarrely it appeared the prisoner's story was true and his wife, child and supporting documentation was brought to the Strutting Cock. Shortly after a Roadwarden Captain arrived threw his considerable legal weight around, held court, and all charges were dismissed. The bounty hunter in question received payment in the form of a re-broken nose, which he seemingly blamed upon our group of brave fellows.

Accounts paid for and a few extra gold crowns in pockets, the next morning saw a well provisioned party leave on the road.an uneventful day led them to a burnt out tollbooth...a legacy of events and chaos assaults (or bandits taking advantage). A night's camp was distrurbed frequently by wolves...big ass wolves. The next day saw a more nervous group moving on down the road. Mid afternoon saw the group meet some nervous, armed Sigmarite pilgrims. Pleasantries were exchanged and the pilgrims warned of bandit attacks a hour along the way and moved on towards their destination monastery with alacrity.

Ninety minutes later the scene chanced upon was one of carnage. Several dead pilgrims and many dead farmers. The halfling acquirer busied themselves acquiring all the fallen weapons. There was no money. Our noble elf found a temporary survivor who indicated this was a case of kidnap of the daughter of Baron von Radische. After mentioning an identifying medallion and charging the elf with rescue of the child, the survivor ceased to merit the description. Examining the body revealed a small amount of cash and the medallion of a device proper of a ferret rampant with a sword on a field of ermine. This engendered a heraldic discussion and mild hysteria concerning the ferret's weapon. Our lot decide to be heroic and turned and to chase the pilgrim kidnappers. This meant a night in the open and again wolves disturbed the night....big wolves from the tracks. Although, only one person claimed to see them and those with night vision did not concur.

The next say saw the group sneak up upon the toll booth they had stayed in and anther scene of carnage. No human bodies, a scrap of unbloodied cloth, ten dead goblins, four dead wolves and a missing cart horse and child. The national acquirer decided to gather the remaining foodstuffs from the cart and the scattered coins. Our tracker identified where the goblinoids had gone and the party has girded itself for war.

To be continued........

[Timf]

Session the Second - Further adventuring on the River Stir.

Advancing swiftly through the trees, the elf and halfling scouts detected a goblin encampment. After spotting prime roast bandit, a few drunk goblins and a tied up child they felt it was a safe assumption that this was the placed they were looking for.

The party assembled and after a certain amount of consideration launched Plan A (Armoured charge with missile support). This worked surprisingly well. Really, no I do mean it. Most goblins were killed, a couple got away. Then avarice overtook certain individuals who looted the lair. At which point the Orcs attacked. A little harder to kill but they were taken down too. More looting ensued.

The party rescued the child, who was somewhat introverted and explained they were taking her home to her father. She said her father was dead. Wandering back along to the road the party carried on their way toward Baron von Radische's place. As they approached a previous scene of carnage the child went slightly potty - it being her adoptive parents and all. Hustling along the group showed a certain amount of tact (really, again, I do mean it) and headed off to the next village along the way.

Approaching this village towards sunset, the party noted closed gates. In an amazing stroke of genius they knocked on the gate and had a traditional bit of banter with a gate guard. This resulted in a small delay while the headman was fetched. This took more time than expected due to a famous spotted dick....with custard we understand. Headman arrives, nobles are noblesse, names are named, hospitality sought and the party gain entrance and head to the Inn on the waterfront that was recommended.

Somewhat ill at ease due to wounds our apprentice mage and Errant Knight decide to visit the wise woman, who there were informed was not only wise but a woman. As it turned out less of the crone and more of the cracker. Our brave pair returned in much better state. The Knight returned a little later and somewhat furtively. Assorted individuals went to go make money. Looted gear had been polished up and was sold off to the local militia in return for some slight better gear and fitted armour. Cash was made. Some was passed around the group.

Returning to the Inn, only one room was available, so the plan was to put the child in there and everyone else sleep in the common room (Common Room! I'm a bloody noble - and in three way unison). Here ended the session on a call for ale.

More to come

[Timf]

'Problems come in Threes' or 'A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum'

Settled in for the evening, our brave wanderers settled in to plan. The consensus was to carry on regardless....but probably using a river boat to head down the road as there were believed to be at least a couple of extra 'fake Sigmarites' on the road. For most of this period the human Noble and his Halfling attendant's attendant were non compos mentis....due to bad ale, and worse stew. Dunny know what that could mean.

The next few hours were spent gossiping and trying to find out when boats left, and one was due to leave the next day. Assorted members of the crew were accosted, politely, and pumped hard - for information. One did spend a lot of time with Bianka trying to play with here and it was explained he had lost his daughter fairly recently. The Captain of the vessel made everyone suspicious, which in fact made them unsuspicious.

Night fell and a guard was arranged. Our brave Nugget took the job and during his watch period one of the boatmen came upstairs and went to bed, another came up and there was an 'Excuse me, Meister' moment followed by a big squeeze during which our Bretonnian friend had a nap, involuntarily. Awakened by the banging upstairs, the elves came alert and proceeded to charge the barred door. After one attempt the door suddenly opened and a bleary eyed ship captain was there with a candle. Barging past the bargee, with considerable difficulty - suspiciously difficult perhaps? - our noble elf bounded up the stairs, followed more slowly by the less noble elf. Empty room, no child, collapsed Knight. Not good.

The wizard peered out the window and made note of two fleeing figures. Cue one noble elf legging back down the stairs, with the recovering Knigget and a brief potential tumble after contact with the ships captain. The less noble elf looked around and spotted the back stairs and pegged it down that way to join his compadres rushing after our friendly neighbourhood kidnappers. Things started to turn ugly at this point. Once halfway to the boat, a crossbow slammed into our wizard apprentice's arm causing some use of Eltharin not normally taught to outsiders.

Arrival at the boat jetty began to be fraught, firstly the kidnappers turned to fight and as the fight kicked off and blows were exchanged a number of heavily armed crossbowmen popped and aggressively suggested individuals should desist all activity. Most people ignored said instruction and the elven apprentice took both exception and aim with his magic missile. Whereupon the crossbows returned the favour - 3 bolts later he was kipping, stapled to the dock. The fourth ploughed into the melee killing a kidnapper in one swift 'Thunk'. At this point, everyone took more attention to the men on the boat's instructions.

THe kidnapper insisted the party had stolen his daughter, the party indicated they hadn't. The man in charge of the boat sent for the Watch. This caused considerable questioning, looking at pictures and removal of dead bodies. A crossbow was found in the Inn's back door labelled with one of the kidnappers old regiment's marks. The Watch seemed inclined to believe the party's story and most witnesses spoke for them. The kidnapper was strung up the next morning and the party were permitted their freedom.

The next day saw planning on where to go to get to the von Radische contact in Hermsdorf. They were offered a ride by a friendly riverboat Captain, whose crew had been so helpful the previous night but suspicions as to what he was up to on the stairs meant his offer was declined. The party set out on foot.

After a fairly uneventful procession to Hermsdorf, the party approached the gates and paid the leg tax to enter. They found the name of an Inn and the location of their contact and decided to meet them. Arriving at the somewhat swish house they knocked and were received by a 'Jeeves' type. Their credentials gained entry and they awaited their host in a room of the house mansion. The gentleman who arrived introduced himself as the steward for Baron von Radische and a successful merchant in his own right. He had unfortunate news, Baron von Radische did indeed intend to recognise Bianka as his daughter and all the paperwork was done BUT he had died and his holdings had been transferred to his rival for the local titles. The upshot was that while Bianka could be declared and the titles recovered, but the odds were high that as a child she would meet an accident during or very shortly after any legal proceedings if they succeeded. The merchant suggested that he take the child in and raise her as his own, giving her a stable and better life than the short alternative dodging assassins in local powerplays. The party agreed and accepted a sum of money, hospitality for a few days and a potential lift quietly out of town (and ideally not coming back).

The story will unfold as our explorers tread the Old World further.......

[Timf]

[OOC] That's the first mini adventure completed. We will move on to further runnings around as I take you toward the main campaign locations. Maybe throw a few in here and there.

[Timf]

Session IV: A New Hop

After settling down for a pleasant evening on someone else's money, our brave adventurers had to decide what to do next. The questing Knight mentioned that he had a questette that could be useful, taking a velvet package wrapped in silver chains to Mittlersdorf, north of Talabheim. Our acquisitive one, excused himself and left to see if he could turn a profit on this trip. Returning later, he seemed someone cock-a-hoop.

Morning broke, but after a quick oiling continued by barge to the riverhead on the way to Talabheim. Exit town left, accompanied by a dwarf. Paranoia levels subsided during the trip although everyone was feeling someone run down and headachy by the end of the river journey. It was suggested that the galley may have been using water, instead of something safe like small beer.

The riverhead was a boring place, its best point was an egress (apologies to the tunemeistery of Mr J Rotten).

The party journeyed north by road from here. On the first night at a coaching inn the group were awakened by a keening elf mage, a shocking situation. Bad dreams of flying hooks and chains and a distinct spidey sense focussing on 'Onest Bob'. On the second day they approached a village to find a sinister figure in cowl and cloak with the traditional black horse, a girl tied up on a bench and a bonfire plus the aroma of well roasted pig. Some quick gossiping determined he had ridden in, announced himself as a Witchfinder, presented a warrant and as the village Elder attempted to dispute with him had shot the Elder, thrown him on a pyre and threatened those elderly and young with Sigmar's wrath in the hereafter and the Emperor's army in the here and now. He was currently trialling the girl as a Witch and billing the village 50GC levy for his services

About 10minutes of listening indicated the guy was either an utter fanatic or so far off base as to be deliberately up to something. This stirred the noble hearts of the human watching and a Bretonnian Knight rode up to vouch for the girl, and to proof his assertion by Ordeal of Combat. A previous hasty conflab with our human Imperial nob having established that this was legal and would require the lone man to either fight, release the girl or march them all to Talabheim for a more senior Court to administer the Ordeal.

The Witchfinder accepted somewhat hastily, drawing two pistols - proving on one move that he was not sinister but actually ambidextrous - and firing. His first shot spat into the Knight in a small painful way, barely upright our Knight prepared to charge only to see the second shot jam in the barrel, exploding the pistol and removing the Witchfinder's hand in a messy and fatal fashion. Cue cheers from the assembled villagers.

Pillage mode was engaged and the body stripped of useful weaponry and information. The guy had clearly been preying on small villages whose able bodied menfolk had been stripped away to face the Storm of Chaos and 'levying' fees that they could not afford to pay. None of the extensive paperwork he carried remotely resembled a Warrant Imperial, Spiritual or Temporal. The villagers buried their dead, were reimbursed to their losses and the widow of the Elder handed the guy's horse and trappings as some cold compensation.

Moving on the next day the party reached Talabheim a few days later. They entered the city and our Trader Extraordinaire decided to search for a well appointed inn, entitled 'The Dead Halfling. At this most salubrious looking joint in such a wonderful part of town, adorned with blue, bared backsides of halflings carved on the second floor our wizard and trader entered to joint. Everyone else gathered round the horses in case they ended up on bricks. Inside a contact was met, he accepted the goods and handed a receipt over. When asked about payment he indicated that payment was to handled by the sender on receipt of the receipt and not him. Our trader meekly accepted this with no argument and left. Wandering back to their lodgings the receipt was observed and a couple of party members went funny colours as the item seemed to be a warrant from the Temple of Verena for the immediate execution of the bearer. The note was dumped into a litter bin and party reached there lodgings. On paying for the first round, 'Onest Jim found the warrant in his pocket again. Suspecting MAGIK he asked a friendly wizard to test his theory, which was confirmed. An attempt to identify the item from a routine identifier got a bad enough response that the group decided to forgo a night in the city and out, ASAFP.

Pushing hard the group left the city behind them and headed on their way to Mittlersdorf.

The road will continue.......

[Timf]

Session the Fifth - the good session.

At the outset our brave Companions were driven by a need to get rid of an inconvenient piece of paper. The reappeariness of the warrant was tested and found to be a bit 'Weeping Angel' like. Thinking that magical assistance in dropping the warrant might help, our wizard cast a 'Drop' spell and everyone got away from the note. It appears to have worked.

A few days later, with much nervous examining of pockets, the band of acquaintances reached Mittlersdorf. After paying the entry fee to the bad cop and saying 'Bello!' to the good cop on the gate, they entered and decided upon taking the recommendation of the gate guard to stay at the Merry Halfling. This turned out to be a good choice, with a busy but decent Halfling run establishment. Our brave fellowship sat down at a booth and looked over the patrons - a smith, a gambling table, a couple of brawny types at the bar, a dwarf Slayer, a farmer or two, a couple of obvious merchant class tables and burghers. The kitchen was open and smells wafted out, tempting smells but no burgers in there. The landlord bustled over and offered rooms, food and conversation. After taking orders and coins, he left.
At this point they group was accosted by the dwarf Slayer named Grod, who appeared to be looking for people to join him in a quest against the Orcs - at least the conversation listed along heavily with 'Aarrrrh, Zhufbar', 'Aaaarrhhh, Gold' and 'AaaaaarrrRRRrrrrHHHHHhhhh, Greenskins' scattered throughout leading the party to jump to that conclusion. Apparently those greenskins do have a Troll.
Our aspiring merchant prince decided to discuss the haulage of small items of value with no questions with a pair of Halfling merchants and seemed to be doing well, items would need hiding well - to avoid the local bandit problem you understand. our resident grenouille heard a friendly accent and sought out one of the gamblers who Sirrahed and Mi'lorded suitably and told tales of his escape from the Imperial Cavalry in Araby mounted on an elephant. He seemed more errant than out own brave Knight.
Stop! Plot Time! - a youth, how uncouth, threw open the door and advanced upon one of the gentlemen at the bar - swearing vengeance and havoc for being set up. A short fight later and said youth was on the ground and bleeding and the landlord was telling the mercenary to put up his sword and not go any further. The merc agreed and on his way out passed our brave souls and indicated that the boy had been sent to do a Man's job and perhaps a motley collection of Humans, Dwarves and Elves might be better suited to recover his noble Lord's possessions. He offered a 20GC advance each and 100GCs for completion and announced he would return in the morning to see if they had mulled the idea over.
The Surgeon arrived the treat the boy, and the smith helped talk to the lad, asking many question about his trip through the woods to distract him from the surgeons knife and needle - and holding him down on occasions when distraction failed.
Unfazed by the sight of blood our companions shrugged and went back to the dinner and thence to their rooms. The night passed uneventfully.

In the morning, girding themselves for action our group found themselves face to face with Bertrand in the common room. He was finishing breakfast and the mob decided to do the same. Afterward, they approached him and agreed to do his job. Taking them off to his employer's home, Bertrand introduced them to him.
The surroundings were pleasant, a two story small town estate and the study was that of an educated and well travelled man. The wine spoke of a connoisseur of the fine. And Herr himself was charming. He revealed that the missing item was in fact his daughter, who he felt was in terrible danger having run off with her secret love, who just happened to be the rakish leader of the local bandit troop. He indicated that she had friends in town, particularly the local alchemist so perhaps they could ask around - discreetly you understand, can't have the neighbours working out she was missing and especially not with some common thief (no offense).
Wandering they decided to sort out some leads They met the alchemist, who did know the girl and had been selling her anti-emetics recently - got a description and a history - adopted recently, only 16, pretty and intelligent and worshipped the ground the Herr walked upon for rescuing her. A quick trip to the surgeon then beckoned to talk to the only witness. The young lad gave some basic details of roughly where they had been ambushed and so on but had not actually seen much. The surgeon asked the party to convey his thanks to the Blacksmith since they were staying at his favourite inn and were likely to see him. This made the group suspicious of the blacksmiths motives in asking lots of questions so decided to pursue their own.
Arriving at the forge they found it empty, hastily left and an annoying child present. After navigating the kid's scatter brained mind they determined the smith had left in a hurry with equipment and decided it might be time to pursue. Buckled up and ready to roll the heroes left to chase after the smith. The gate guards kindly indicated his hasty direction of travel and the group pursued. Following downriver they eventually identified where h had crossed and saw his raft on the other side. This required an upriver run to cross and return. Finding the raft again, they trailed the smith until they found is corpse, hacked with something spikey. Uncovering an identifiable tattoo that seemed suspicious they located an onward trail.
Following this the group eventually found a cave in a hillside which assorted trails led to. The group pounced and found only dead bandits in the cave. A groaning was heard from deeper in the darkness. This turned out to be the bandit king beau of the party's search and rescue objective in a compromised position. Bemoaning his fate and the fact his love had been stolen in semi-tragic format, he indicated that the holes into which he had recently been stuffed up to his backside were the escape route by which intruders had slaughtered his men and stolen Julianne.
Without further thought, our brave compadres entered the crawlspaces and followed them down and down until they exited in a dank, dark, smelly midden of a living space and we dear reader ran out of time.

[Timf]

Session 6 - half a dozen down, and no-one's dead!

We start in media res with our motley crew under assault from a stink the like of which no man, dwarf or elf has known. Halflings they say 'Meh, its a bit farmyardish'. A few bits of cash were found by the more mercenary party members and an empty apothecary vial.
The exit from the room led upwards, and the party surged forwards. Shortly thereafter, the ceiling fell on them. After digging out the buried elf who seemed injured mostly in his dignity, the group moved upward and onwards. Eventually digging out of the ground through a half collapsed exit hole.
Outside, the tracks of the critters and their abductee were clear and easy to follow and after a couple of hours the party realised they were gaining rapidly. Approaching rapidly they were confronted with a ratman, holding Julianne hostage and shouting 'We promised her!', 'One year, one year and we take!' and similar plot related gubbins. Ignoring this entire a fight ensued between the party and the ratman's expected compadres. The combat was brief and bloody. Dead rats, a bit of constructive looting and recovery of a young girl suffering from nausea, spasmodic pains and with a large distended belly. Minds raced to one conclusion and the party decided to head back to the cart parked up and looked after a bored human noble and a halfing.
Heading overground this time the party checked the caves and found the beau had expired. Cue assessment of his estate and move onto the cart. It being night the group decided to circle the cart for protection. This turned out to be unnecessary as the night passed uneventfully and fortified with badly burnt bacon the party moved onwards.
They returned to town with the now very ill daughter. Arriving at their inn they met with their employers factotum who whisked the daughter away post haste, and the party decided to follow their noses ripe for paying job and a need for discussion about twitchy nosed skaven (who don't exist, dontcha know).
At the noble's estate, their host took his daughter upstairs and admitted a certain level of contact with ratty types, when he and Bertrand had been placed in an unfortunate position of being captured. They had talked their way out of it but the ratboys clearly had come to collect. Queue an offer of cash for defence. With a mission to hand and a swords in hand the party set up defences. The idea was to defend the main entrances, and collapse back to the staircase and upstairs for the possible final stand. The mage took the dorsal gun-turret roof-top cupola, two out back with Bertrand and two in the main hall with the barred and nails front door. Shortly before midnight bells tolled and fires erupted to the north by the gates. Assuming this was a diversion the party refused to be diverted and held their ground. Smashing glass was heard in the dining room alerting our brave pair in the front room. Rats erupted from the door and were engaged by bow and blade. Sling boy set up at the top of the stairs and got stuck in, the rear kitchen door was abandoned to Bertrand and our brave hero decided to dash through the dining room and take the skaven from the rear. Our elf mage ended up in duel on the rooftop and dropped rats - plus himself. Fate fled.....
Forced back to the stairs the mighty heroes fought tooth and nail against the invading ratmen. Eventually they were pushed to the doors of the nobles study, which the rats kicked open. Things appeared to take a turn for the worse at this point. Julianne was on a stone block, the noble was chanting and then things went properly Pete Tong. Queue one mutant daughter transformation, rat bits everywhere, dark magic and proper, proper burning of fate points akimbo. The end result was a number of unconscious heroes, dead mage, dead rats, dead Bertrand, dead daughter. They're dead Dave, they're all dead. Its worse than that, they're dead Jim....
So what do you want at that time - the Watch show up. Explanations were made and generally accepted. Things were not looked at too closely and our elf mage is officially not insane. He has a certificate to prove it and all.
Queue rest and recuperation. Notably the house was cordoned off and no-one allowed in or out but bizarrely some kids got in and played with fireworks and the place burnt to the ground that night.

So, revitalised our mob decide its time to get to Middenheim - or at the very least out of Hochland.

[OOC: And this ended the second mini-adventure for the group]

[Timf]

Session 7 (09/05/16) - Hello Boys! or a Lady of Virtue.

While some slept off their worst excesses, others were more active. THe honest businessman went looking for trade. He was offered to escort a passenger, a lady of virtue suitably looked after by a Knight Errant and his retinue (yup, today they are retinue). Cash was mentioned, as were expenses. Gold crowns swimming before his eyes, the Halfling agreed without asking questions. Orlandia is going to the big city is seems.
In the meantime Glodson got dwarfy and started running around the forge. He decided he might want to nick some nice items from the stock there which seemed to offend the brave and pure Knight Rene Artois. Sir asked about the weapons and was offered them as a reward. Our party elves rested.
The next morning, plans were laid to head to Middenheim. Tack was harnessed, carts were propped and loins were girded. Three nights of travel were expected before getting to Middenheim and here they were with just one knight between them. Orlandia arrived sashaying up with here possessions including, (in)appropriately, a Tantalus and a chest. She and her stuff was loaded onto the cart and the party headed out.


TBC

[Timf]

Session 8 (27/06/16) - Into the Midden....heim