[Session] Fauxhammer S03E04: Dead Zeppelin

Red guy turned out to be
a red herring.

The rest of the family was out of town for a week, so I seized the opportunity to hold a fourth session for our Mordschlag campaign on the 4th of April. I used the last few months to digest player feedback and overhaul the core system to something closer to WFRP1e in feel. The most significant changes include transitioning to twelve attributes instead of ten, using the units of the attack roll to determine hit location, rolling d6 for damage, introducing Mythras-like special effects, and a experimenting with a freeform skill system. The feedback was surprisingly positive, so I feel I'm on track now and not just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.

I'm a big fan of train levels in first-person shooters. We had one in the last season, where the party attempted to escape a speeding skaven train. It was one of the most memorable adventures in the campaign. I thought it was time to try another adventure where they are confined to a small enclosed space with something dangerous - this time, in air!

Dramatis Personae

Blitzkrieg, dwarf veteran slayer: Half-deaf, naked, and in possession of a magical axe he fished out from the belly of the legendary Moby Squig. He is on his way to Altdorf to find the love of his life: the dwarf priestess Agonia.

Edgar, human [redacted] (cameo): The former monster slayer's skin turned black and white after a short trip to the Realms of Chaos, where he saw several of his clones crucified, was granted apocalyptic visions, and obtained an ominous sword. He is also followed by the black and white horse of a former Chaos warrior.

Paether von Sternwart, human astromancer: Eager to get back to Altdorf, graduate as an archmage, and put his elven sword back into the daemon prince it was pulled out of.

Ruben Schultz, human mercenary captain: Downtrodden Sylvanian noble on his way back home from a Breatonnian trip. He firmly believes there are no vampires in Sylvania. 

Rudolf Fürst, human ex-daemonologist (NPC): Former student who summoned a herald of Slaanesh, caused some trouble, and was beaten into becoming Ruben's squire.

Session Report

The party concluded the last session with their balloon hanging from the nose of a dwarven zeppelin. Following a short rescue mission they met Roli Balderson, the wheelchair-bound captain of the ship. They learned the airship is carrying passengers between Araby and Marienburg. Roli offered the party a free trip to Altdorf as compensation for the accident. However, he cautioned them against visiting the city. Since the incident at the docks there is a sickening green smog hanging over the streets, weird folks are gathering there, the decent ones are leaving in throngs, and the emperor is dying.

In the first half of the session the party got to know some of the crew and passengers.

• Squinting Skegi was the half-eyed navigator of the ship. He was rarely seen out of the map room or away from the window with a telescope on his remaining eye.
• Mighty Margit was the leader of the stevedores. She had the lovely voice of a long-time smoker and whiskey drinker. She had a crush on Blitzkrieg since the moment she met her.
• Hardy Harald was the dirty chef with a permanent scowl on his face and froth leaking from the corner of his mouth. He showed a surprising amount of respect towards Blitzkrieg because his brother was also a slayer - one who died early in his career.
• Benjamin Hill was a halfling stand-up comedian. It was a miracle he wasn't thrown out of the airship earlier for his jokes.
• Rüdiger von Kopfsmerz and his family were the quintessential irritating imperial nobles who thought the world revolved around them.
• Alfonz Verpacken was the Kopfsmerz family's valet. They didn't bother booking him a room, so he travelled in the storage with the luggage.
• Faqir al-Gebra introduced himself as an Arabyan envoy. In reality, he was a Strigany charlatan trying to rip people off by gambling. His latest victim was Rüdiger, who lost some money and family jewels while playing with the "envoy". Blitzkrieg tried his luck against him. The dwarf lost a small sum and couldn't prove the "Arabyan" was cheating.
• Professor Heinz Burgsch was an academic from the Altdorf University specialized in Nehekharan archaeology. On his latest dig, he discovered an undisturbed tomb in the Land of the Dead. He packed a few sarcophagi containing the remains of a priest and some of his warriors on the airship. Paether had a long discussion with him about his discoveries while Blitzkrieg was gambling.

Skegi discovered that a green cloud was coming from the direction of Altdorf, which they didn't have the time to evade. Roli told everyone to return to their rooms and prepare for turbulence. Paether started getting headaches from the warp dust cloud.

Far from their tombs
they still guard.

The adventurers, of course, didn't heed the captain's warnings. Ruben and Blitzkrieg wanted to search the sarcophagi, fearing that the cloud would raise the dead or cause some magical bullshit. They even bought garlic and salt from Harald at a ridiculously high price. Meanwhile, Paether realized they haven't seen Rudolf for a while, so he went looking for him before he caused any trouble.

They all met at the storage room at the back of  the gondola. They didn't find any sarcophagi, but they saw Benjamin getting ripped apart by a pair of red arms that disappeared into the darkness with a bang coming from above. Among the boxes, they found Rudolf in the middle of a protective circle. He told Ruben that he heard some weird noises from above, panicked, and summoned a Bloodletter of Khorne to protect himself. Then he lost control of the daemon. After Ruben disciplined his squire, they all climbed up through the trapdoor to hunt down the daemon.

The adventurers found themselves in a huge labyrinthine cargo bay full of crates. Claw marks showed the creature's path, but the adventurers had no time to track them as the shambling corpses of the dwarven stevedores attacked them. After beating them down, they scrutinized the corpses and realized that they weren't killed by the daemon.

While Ruben and Blitzkrieg held back another wave of zombies deeper in the cargo bay, Paether zealously followed his daemon-slaying elf sword's light. He found the Bloodletter climbing up a crate in an Exorcist-like spider-climb. Paether killed the daemon with a single strike, but then acid started spraying from the screaming corpse. The acid burned the wizard, but Ruben pulled him out of the acidic stream's path, which kept flowing for a minute before stopping.

After the last wave of zombies, ancient khopesh-wielding skeletal warriors showed up. While the two warriors quickly dispatched them, the skeletal remains started to move again. While they were busy destroying them, a cackling voice called forth a cloud of scarabs, gravely wounding Ruben and slightly wounding Blitzkrieg. They followed the caster to the other end of the cargo bay, where Paether stunned another bunch of undead stevedores with a stormblast, then climbed down through another trapdoor to the entry hall, and burst into the lounge, where they finally met the mummy wielding a Scarab staff and a meteoric iron khopesh. In a quick and brutal battle, Paether disarmed the mummy's staff-wielding hand with a magical blast. Literally, Ruben was gravely wounded, but in the end, the adventurers prevailed.

Once the danger was over and they left the cloud, the professor got a bitchslap from the captain for bringing dangerous cargo on the ship, Blitzkrieg received special treatment from Margit, and everyone got a warm handshake for saving the day. As the airship reached Altdorf, Margit visited the adventurers to give each one of them a backpack 

[Session] Fauxhammer S03E03: Daemonslayer

The epitome of gothic horror.

The third session of our Mordschlag campaign was on the 22nd of June, where we finished our adventures in Kreutzhofen.

Dramatis Personae

Blitzkrieg, dwarf veteran slayer: Half-deaf, naked, and in possession of a magical axe he fished out from the belly of the legendary Moby Squig. He is on his way to Altdorf to find the love of his life: the dwarf priestess Agonia.

Edgar, human [redacted] (cameo): The former monster slayer's skin turned black & white after a short trip to the Realms of Chaos, where he saw several of his clones crucified, was granted apocalyptic visions, and obtained an ominous sword. He is also followed by the black and white horse of a former chaos warrior.

Paether von Sternwart, human astromancer: Eager to get back to Altdorf, graduate as an archmage, and put his elven sword back into the daemon prince it was pulled out of.

Ruben Shultz, human mercenary captain: Downtrodden sylvanian noble on his way back home from a breatonnian trip. He firmly believes there are no vampires in Sylvania.

Session Report

Following last night's events the adventurers interrogated Rudolf Fürst about what's going on. It turned out the scholar got interested in daemonology while studying in Altdorf. He summoned a daemon of Slaanesh who promised to appear at a random time in the future to kill him. Fürst went to the edge of the Empire hoping that he can run and hide from the daemon. The adventurers promised Fürst to keep an eye on him so they can catch the daemon.

The interrogation was interrupted by Bruno, the militia captain. He informed the party that there was another murder attempt, this time against one of Magnus Richthofen's farmhands. The victim is alive, but dying, and Dr. Entesang is nowhere to be found. Edgar stayed with Rudolf in the inn, while the other went to the doctor's house.

Blitzkrieg kicked in the doctor's door and entered the house with his comrades. Paether sensed a slight magic inside, so they started going through the doctor's belonging. They found spell components, books of necromancy, books of science, and a large number of bills and payment notices about various scientific devices. Many of these were for a different name, so Paether started to suspect that the doctor is in incognito here. He put some of these away as potential tools for ransom.

The investigation was disrupted by the drunk gravedigger. He wasn't too keen on talking until he got some of the doctor's finest wines. It turned out he earned some beer money by digging up fresh corpses for the doctor, who has a laboratory hidden under the Reichenbach manor. The old tale of the Reichenbach manor being burned down by bandits also turned out to be bogus: the gravedigger said it was the villagers of Kreutzhofen who lynched the Reichenbach's for being tyrannical assholes.

At the ruins of the Reichenbach manor the party found a metal pole that was time and time again hit by lightning bolts, and the door to the cellar. Despite the mess down there it was obvious that the place was occupied from the magically sealed door and runic traps. In the laboratory the doctor and his hunchback assistant were about to raise his patchwork Frankenstein's monster bye the power of weird science! As the lightning zapped it the body raised and with a bone chilling groan it said: "Just five more minutes..."

Our intrepid heroes weren't startled by the sight, which surprised the doctor. Entesang declared that he never hurt anyone and explained how on the long his research can benefit mankind. The adventurers didn't care about what's going on, they just need a doctor, right now. So Entesang and Igor left the creature in the laboratory to clean up while they visited the victim.

Back in the inn Rudolf was enjoying the safety of being tied up next to a weird warrior meditating with white eyes and a black and white hellblade on his lap. Paether realized that Edgar's sword created an anti-magical area, which is what probably kept the daemon away. The party thought about pulling Rudolf out of his shelter to use him as bait for the daemon, but ended up dropping the idea. Instead they visited the scorched house to see if they can salvage anything from Rudolf's burnt notes and books.

"Someday - and that day may never
come - I'll fuck you up. But until
that day, accept this justice as
 gift on my summoning's day."

Paether sensed an ominous presence within the house, but found no one inside. Instead the adventurers heard voices that tried to tempt them into treacherous acts against their comrades. They were tenacious though. Pather cast light on Ruben's sword, hoping it will reveal the daemon, to no avail. Then Blitzkrieg had a brilliant idea: if the daemon likes playing with his prey, Rudolf Fürst, then he is going to go back to the inn and kill him. That angered the daemon enough to make them manifest and attack furiously.

Ruben wanted to flee at the sight of the Herald of Slaanesh, but Paether helped him regain his cool and join the battle. Blitzkrieg held his ground against the daemon, until finally Paether - perusing the stormy weather - cast a lightning bolt that blew the herald to pieces. Rudolf was grateful for what the adventurers did for him. To cleanse himself from his sins he offered to join Ruben as a squire. Ruben promised to leave him at the first monastery if he doesn't perform well in his new role. Edgar woke up from his meditation and didn't remember jackshit. The guests at the inn were paid a few rounds to make sure they don't remember the weird shit happening around the inn tonight.

Except of course when they had to testify for Lazlo Lazlovich, who was let out of prison. Bruno also learned that Richthofen wasn't planning a revolution, but to deliver supplies to Mortensholm via his balloon. Since the recent beastman attacks and the daemon were enough reason to upkeep the state of emergency, he got what he wanted and let Richthofen recover his guns - at the cost of leaving a few of them in hands of the militia.

Lazlo said good bye to the party and continued his journey to Altdorf by boat. Richthofen took off with the adventurers to fly south first, then try his balloon at a longer trip after that, to Altdorf. Alas on the way to Mortensholm they lost control of the balloon because of some mechanical malfunction, then the balloon got punctured and started losing air as they ploughed through a huge cloud. After a bit of a panic and prayers though the balloon's passengers realised they weren't losing altitude - in fact, something was carrying them... Once they left the cloud they found out that their balloon was punctured by the nose of a dwarven zeppelin!

And that ends our adventures in Death's Dark Shadow's Kreutzhofen. After that I took some time to revisit rules and continue the Eremus campaign too (using Mythras, for the sake of variety). We'll continue sometime next year, once I recovered from our second kid's birth.

[Session] Fauxhammer S03E02: Revelations

With that tongue they can easily
reach your back molars.

We held the second session of our Mordschlag campaign on the 4th of April, with two players present in person, and one virtually - staring at miniatures and maps through a shitty little webcam attached to my table. That's what you get for loitering in Scotland!

Dramatis Personae

Blitzkrieg, dwarf veteran slayer: Half-deaf, naked, and in possession of a magical axe he fished out from the belly of the legendary Moby Squig. He is on his way to Altdorf to find the love of his life: the dwarf priestess Agonia.

Edgar, human [redacted]: The former monster slayer's skin turned black & white after a short trip to the Realms of Chaos, where he saw several of his clones crucified, was granted apocalyptic visions, and obtained an ominous sword. He is also followed by the black and white horse of a former chaos warrior.

Paether von Sternwart, human astromancer: Eager to get back to Altdorf, graduate as an archmage, and put his elven sword back into the daemon prince it was pulled out of.

Session Report

After a hearty breakfast our intrepid adventurers decided that they should visit the nearby village of Weilerberg, to find an old woman who knows one of the suspects of last night's murder: the young druidess. Frau Eberhauer turned out to be a retired elementalist. She told her visitors that the druidess they are looking for is a feral child called Wanda, who appeared two years ago around the Moon Pool. She is in her teens, has some magical talents, and more than likely innocent, because she never wanders far from her territory. She is also respected by the locals, who send her baskets of food in hope of a good harvest. Frau Eberhauer told the party where do people leave their gifts, and even sent a basket of jams.

After plowing through a dark forest the party arrived to the glade they were looking for, then got ambushed by five beastmen. Paether conjured a pair of wings to fall back to a better position, while Blitzkrieg and the Edgar held the beastmen back. A combination of magical windblast, lightning bolts, and steel killed three of the beasts. One fled south along the river, the other fled west into the forest, until he was caught by animated vines. When the adventurers found him they saw it's capable of regeneration, so they dispatched him a swift and brutal manner. It was only then that the druidess showed herself.

The girl was suspicious, but thanks to their valiant efforts shown against the minions of Chaos and the jam they brought the party quickly earned her trust. Wanda lead them to a lake deep in the forest, and told them, that she too has felt that an evil presence appeared lately near Kreutzhofen, and that the waters of the pool will offer them guidance.

Paether was the first to take a bath in the pool. He saw a vision of a sick old oak with six saplings growing under it - but five of them seemed insubstantial, with birds unable to rest on their branches. Then he saw the vision of three blue faces on the sky reminding him of the daemon prince whom he pulled his sword out of a year ago. When the wizard raised said sword to the sky, the demonic faces were distorted by agony and disappeared. When Blitzkrieg took the plunge, he didn't get anything other than wet. When Edgar gave it a shot, the lake catapulted him out.

Without new leads the party returned to Kreutzhofen to investigate Magnus Richthofen, a local landowner whom Bruno, the milita captain, suspects of planning a rebellion. After presuading his two dimwit, labourers the party entered the barn, where they met the landowner. It turned out Magnus was just a selfmade scientist and engineer, who wanted to create a balloon. His plan was to use his invention to ship the guns Bruno confiscated to Mortensholm in the Border Princes, to aid the fight against the greenskins. He offered the party a ride to Altdorf, if they help him recover his guns and join him to Mortensholm.

After the deal was made the adventurers returned to Kreutzhofen to visit Rudolf Fürst, the student whose door got a penis nailed to it last night. There was a storm coming, and far away to the north they saw several lightning bolts strike around the same location. While that was suspicious, they didn't have time to take a detour, because there was another vulgar surprise on the student's door. There was a strange smell in the air and Rudolf's reactions were hostile to the knocking. Soon a Fiend of Slaanesh burst through it, while Rudolf ran up to the attic to start a fire.

Edgar came under the effect of the fiend's musky odour, trying to hold Blitzkrieg back from attacking them, but was pushed aside. Dwarven steel and magic destroyed the monster, who melted into a fragrant rainbowy puddle. By the time the locals came to check out what's going out the house was burning and a hysterical Bruno was brought down by the party. Paether knew that Bruno was trying to incinerate occult books in desperation, yet they told the locals that it was some greasy stuff that caught fire.

While the villagers were busy fighting the flames, Bruno admitted to this captors that he summoned the demon to protect himself from something more horrifying...

Pushing Things Over the Edge

One of the things we are experimenting was throwing out Luck Points, which allow you to reroll tests in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Instead, if you are really not satisfied with your roll, you can choose to push the test. This allows you to make another roll, with two caveats: the second roll is final and you gain a number of stress (which leads to insanity), or corruption (which leads to mutation), or wounds equal to half the units of your final roll. Which one you gain depends on what kind of roll you pushed - e.g. breaking down a door will likely cause some wounds because you bruise yourself, while regaining control over a spell will result in corruption.

Three sessions in this is one of the rules that will likely stay. My players like using it when things look desperate and I'm satisfied with the pace corruption and stress accumulates. I also like reminding them when things go south, and tempting them into using it. That short moment while they hesitate whether they should give in or accept failure is priceless.

[Session] Fauxhammer S03E01: Back in the Saddle

Another excellent module overshadowed
by The Enemy Within.

On the 3rd of March I finally GMed my first session after almost two years of hiatus. While my son's arrival came in the middle of our Portals of Eremus campaign, I decided to keep that game on hold, and dust off our Zweihänder campaign instead, which took a pause because of the pandemic a few years earlier. Those who have been reading this blog for a while now might remember that I had some session reports for that campaign, but eventually discontinued writing them because they took more energy than I was willing to spend on them.

We has our 18th session behind us when the virus intervened, which marked the end of what we called "season 2". During the first season the party thwarted several skaven plans, had to leave Nuln as wanted criminals, and accidentally freed a daemon prince of Tzeentch. The second season started with them trying to tie up loose ends, which resulted in blowing up an entire quarter of Altdorf, waking up on a skaven train, and ending up in Tilea, which was invaded by a greenskin horde at the time. Thus began the party's long and weird way home...

Season 3 starts with the party returning to the Empire, with a warm up adventure using bits and pieces from the excellent Death's Dark Shadow. It's not only the scenery what changed: we also left Zweihänder behind in favour of my homebrew system Mordschlag¹, which I jotted down during the winter to have something that's much lighter than Zweihänder or WFRP4e, and works well with WFRP1e and WFRP2e stat blocks on the fly². I might talk about that later, but for now, onward to the session report!

Dramatis Personae

Blitzkrieg, dwarf veteran slayer: Half-deaf, naked, and in possession of a magical axe he fished out from the belly of the legendary Moby Squig. He is on his way to Altdorf to find the love of his life: the dwarf priestess Agonia.

Edgar, human [redacted]: The former monster slayer's skin turned black & white after a short trip to the Realms of Chaos, where he saw several of his clones crucified, was granted apocalyptic visions, and obtained an ominous sword. He is also followed by the black and white horse of a former chaos warrior.

Paether von Sternwart, human astromancer: Eager to get back to Altdorf, graduate as an archmage, and put his elven sword back into the daemon prince it was pulled out of.

Ruben Shultz, human mercenary captain: Downtrodden sylvanian noble on his way back home from a breatonnian trip. He firmly believes there are no vampires in Sylvania. New character.

Brünhilde, human hedge master: A huge burly woman with an addiction to mandrake. Alas she was pulled away early from the game to fulfill some motherly duties, but still deserves mention. New character.

Session Report

Let's throw a troll at them!
Aaand it's gone...

After orcs burned down Alimento and the party made a deal with some vampiresm they were finally on their way home on a strigani bargue. While still on the underwater river leading to the Empire, they learned that Altdorf is in turmoil: there is a huge hole in the city, the green mist billowing out of it is spreading sickness, a new extremist sigmarite cult is on the rise, Emperor Karl Franz is dying, and his son is missing.

Near the end of the journey Blitzkrieg and one of the sailors pulled up a stinky river troll along with the webs, who immediately attacked the group with a rusty anchor chained to its hand. He was one unlucky bastard... First a pot thrown at his head distracted, then Ruben threw an oil lamp in his face, then all his attacks were dodged or parried (though Ruben's sword shattered while parrying the  troll's anchor), and after getting critted by the dwarf he tried to jump back into the water, only to get torn apart by attacks of opportunity. Lazlo Lazlovicz, the captain, offered to pay the party's drinks in the Helmsman Inn once they are in Kreutzhofen.

Kreutzhofen was full of tileans, bretons, and refuges. They quickly learned the city is currently under the control of the pompous militia captain Bruno Trottel, who abuses some legal fuckery to announce martial law everytime there is something suspicious, which is a day or two later is revoked by the dorfrichter Sigismund Klippel - until Bruno discovers some new threat.

After buying suppliesthe party went to the Helmsman, except for Paether, who performed some divinations on the edge of the village. After getting some baleful visions he noticed a giggling girl running away and his daemon-slaying sword pulsing at his side. He lost the tracks, then heard a commotion across the street. It turned out a tilean syndicalista was brutally murdered and mutilated at the bridge, and Lazlo Lazlovits was found looting his corpse. Needless to say the strigani captain was beaten senseless and taken in by the militia.

In the Helmsman the party gathered some gossip while drinking herbal tea and schnaps with three old crones:

• The town was founded by the tyrannical Reichenbach family, whose last members burnt to death in their manor during a bandit attack many years ago. Some say the old Reichenbach lord is back as a vampire, murdering people.
• Whether there is a vampire or not, graves were dug up recently, and the third victim's scarf was found in the mud near the Reichenbach manor.
• The village has strong pagan ties. There have been no priests for a while now. Recently a teenage girl showed up in the nearby wilderness, whom many revere as a druidess.
• The pious believe the druidess is up to no good, and someone claimed she saw the girl near the house of the theologist Rudolf Furst.
• Rudolf Furst moved in recently from Altdorf and paid rent in advance for a year so he can perform his studies in peace. He is rarely seen and doesn't mingle with the locals.

At Rudolf Furst's house the party the dead tilean's missing genitalia at the doorstep. After pretending to be with the militia, Rudolf let them in for a drink. The theologist was absolutely clueless about what's going on. He didn't notice anything and the party didn't find anything interesting at his house - but at least Paether messed up casting Witch Sight, waking up all the animals and children in the vicinity as a side-effect³. Rudolf was eager to join the party on their way to Altdorf when they leave, because he has to do some paperwork at the university.

The ragtag hand of the law.

At the militia house Bruno explained this was the fourth murder in four months, and he needed to arrest someone to calm the people. Lazlo was in the village during the last murder, he is known to be on bad terms with the tileans, he used to walk around with a huge machete, and he was found right next to the corpse, so he was ideal for scapegoat. Other than the wounds being too brutal to be done by human there isn't much evidence in his favour, but those have yet to be examined. The local doctor, Jakob Entesang wasn't at home when the militia knocked on his door. The party can save Lazlo by providing evidence or doing a mission for Bruno... Magnus Richthofen, a local landlord, has been working on something in his barn and ordering all kinds of weird stuff. The last cargo he received was a crate of guns and gunpowder, which Bruno confiscated and used as an excuse to proclaim martial law. He is sure Richthofen is planning to incite a rebellion to take over the village.

After the chitchat with the militia, the adventurers visited the doctor's house. The Herr Entesang arrived soon on his couch along with his hunchback assistant, Igor. He said he was visiting an old patient in a nearby village and will check the mutilated corpse tomorrow. The party returned to the Helmsman, discussing what should they do tomorrow.

Big thank you to Paether's player, who took and shared his session notes. Maybe I should do the same for his next Call of Cthulhu session...

¹ Might be temporary title. I wanted to go with Mordhau, but that's already taken.

² One of my biggest mechanical issues with Zweihänder is how it handles characteristics and bonuses. Conversion isn't hard, but it takes some effort, and isn't much fun if you have dozens of stat blocks.

³ It's a pity he didn't roll the big brother of this effect, which makes the nearby animals and children so angry they will seek out and attack the wizard.

ZWEIHÄNDER Session #4: Rats in the Walls

The fourth session took place on the 27th of January, 2018, with the following player participants:

• Agonia Gimdinasdotr, a dwarf adherent of Valaya, quick to help those in trouble.
• Blitzkrieg, a dwarf slayer, a sucker for disease, wound infection, and critical hits.
• Päther von Sternwart, a human astrologer, proud of himself for defeating a foe all alone.

With Blitzkrieg's injuries healed and Päther's spell arsenal expanded the party was ready to descend into the sewers under the Labyrinth, one of Nuln's poorest quarters. Blitzkrieg and Agonia bought some rat poison and a few wheels of cheese with themselves, hoping they can use them as bait. The party broke into the sewers through the sewerjack's entry. Agonia and Päther stole their boat, and with Blitzkrieg guiding them on the sewerside, followed the path the cultist told them about during the interrogation. There were swarms of rats everywhere. When they scurried away scared there was a bell tinkling in the distance, but the adventurers couldn't figure out what it was.

When the party reached the breach in the wall they were looking for, the boat bumped into something. A skaven with rebreather jumped out of the water and attacked the boatman. After getting an axe into his face and realizing the numbers are not in his favor he threw a smoke bomb and tried to escape, but Päther pushed the boat forward and blew the ratmen's head off with magick missile. The adventurers looted the various poisons, and warpstone dust from the corpse.

At the end of the short tunnel behind the breach stood a crappy door improvised from trash. After listening and hearing nothing Blitzkrieg took the poisoned cheese, smeared warpstone dust on it to make it extra desirable, put it in front of the door, knocked, and ran away. A minute later the door slowly opened, and after some hesitation someone grabbed the cheese. The party took its time, then entered the room. Inside they found hammocks, crates, simple tables, two huge wooden barrels, and two doors. In the center of the room someone sat on a chair. It was the cultist from last time, with a Colombian necktie. This time the adventurers also noticed the a houselike symbol and the letters ADA painted on his wrist.

When you have so much poison on your blades even
their vapor is deadly.

Faint groaning was coming from one of the barrels. The skaven that ate the cheese was lying there tortured by stomach pains, until his head was cut off. Blitzkrieg smashed the other barrel to find another skaven who was probably planning an ambush. This one held his ground against the dwarf until his comrades arrived and joined the fray - including the Gutter Runner Snikt Snikt, master of oriental martial arts, who is also known as Totenkopf for the many skulls decorating his armor and cloak. By the end of the battle Agonia was losing her sight because of poisoning, and Blitzkrieg's right arm was useless. The slayer just shrugged, muttered something about ambidexterity, and continued fighting with his left handed axe. By some miracle Päther stood his ground against Snikt Snikt and managed to damage him badly with a magick missile. After a smoke bomb the leader fled. Päther tried to stop him with a spell but failed and he collapsed with the wind knocked out of his lungs. Blitzkrieg chased down the last skaven, and after he finished the ratman he returned to Agonia and gave her  his antidote.

The rest of the base was empty. The skaven expected an attack and only left a few assassins behind. They took their prisoners and equipment with themselves, although a prisoner left a diary written in blood behind a brick frequently mentioning the name Ludwig Müller. There was also a closed door with a lock. After opening it black gas bursted out, but it didn't effect anyone - it was probably meant to keep skaven away from the room, which based on the notes and diagrams within belonged to Whitespore. Päther took the plans of a rocket, while Agonia took a plush rat - after removing the warpstone from it. Several letters about human trafficking pointed to a man named Ludwig Müller, again.

Our adventurers returned to the street shivering from sewer fever. After some discussion they agreed that the fever can wait, they should continue their investigation and find out who this Ludwig is. Information from Don Cornetto led to a homeless shelter on the edge of Nuln, lead by an old nun called Theresa Anjürük. The lady knew very well who the party was talking about. She said Ludwig used to transport the mentally ill to the mental health institute Asyl der Angst (ADA in short), but it probably had a bad effect on his mind because he was incarcerated there too a week or two ago.

The asylum was on the edge of the city, a cold grey building hidden by trees, eyes flashing behind barred windows, and the sound of violin coming from within. Blitzkrieg sent a poisoned cheese with a thank you message to the institute, which the others agreed to be a stupid plan. Päther went to the university to find Shultz Brenner. He gave him the plans he found in the sewers, told him they are going to the ADA, and asked him to report their plans to Heinz von Tomatenhaus if they don't return in 24 hours.

The good professor.

The party discarded the option of sneaking in, and chose to enter the asylum through the front door. They introduced themselves as relatives of Ludwig. After a couple of minutes they were greeted by prof. Philippe Neugirig. They had a short discussion about the patient's health, and how madmen can be reintegrated into the society. Philippe allowed the PCs to visit Ludwig. He sent Igor, a hunchback halfling with a wounded right hand with them. They descended through the stairs to the farthest wing's deepest level.

Ludwig sat in his cell, mumbling to his visitors about how the patients are used for skaven experiments, what kind of horrific images the doctors use to brainwash them into Yellow Fang cultists, and how he ended here thanks to an unsuccessful blackmail attempt against prof. Neugirig. The adventurers soon realized that they are trapped here: the massive door on the next level is closed, and the inane Igor had no key to open it. A psychopath called Grinning Walter told them Igor was wounded because he bit his hand not so long ago, and got the door's key without Igor noticing it. He is willing to tell where it is if they torture Igor in front of him. The adventurers didn't want to do that. Päther convinced him that he is a palmist, and asked Walter to show him his hands so he can tell him the future. Päther noticed there was rust on Walter's hands. They went on to explore the level, passing through a cell with a crying ogre that kept complaining about the things inside him.

Leaving the cells they found the medical room (which they looted for medicine and tools), a store room with various tools (didn't bother with this one), the rubber rooms (someone broke his nose here), the spartan bathrooms (didn't bother with this one yet either), and finally a big room with chairs and some strange devious device with a lens, and a canvas in front of it. They realized this was the projector Ludwig mentioned earlier, that shows them nightmarish pictures. While they were curious about the images in the end they all agreed their sanity is more important. Then something started ringing in the next room.

There was a large booth with a conch-like tool inside - another devious device of the vile ratmen! Päther was brave enough to pick up the conch. Someone started talking from the device. They were called by Qiree, aka. "Palemaster", a skaven of utmost importance, who wanted to have a word with them. He knew they were in the asylum thanks to prof. Neugirig. He was angry for the adventurers foiling his plans several times. They stole the red ring, and now Oldenhaller is out of town, who knows where. They killed a rat ogre, and his most brilliant inventor, Eesk, aka "Whitespore". While he managed to get his head back, the brain damage was irreversible, so Eesk's engineering knowledge is useless now. Qiree did salvage what he could though, and his punisher is on its way to the asylum. Our heroes have one hour left.

A thing you don't want to see in your toilet.

The party started searching for ways to exit. They found a rusty drainage in the bathroom, with the key under it. Unfortunately it didn't open the door - Walter was lying, and just wanted them to torture Igor. Agonia got bored of the ogre's cries and checked him out. The ogre was sure that ratmen have violated his private parts, and put rats inside him. Päther made the ogre fall asleep with his spell, Agonia pulled a glove, and checked the ogre's behind - then screamened when she pulled out an ugly wriggling rat from him. Believing the ogre's tales now they woke him up, asked him if he's okay, and asked where did the skaven do this to him.

Following the ogre they returned to the bathroom, taking the scared Igor and Ludwig with them. Meanwhile they could hear the door above opening, and the thumping of mighty footsteps approaching. Blitzkrieg checked out what's coming, and saw an abomination that shouldn't be alive: the skaven put Whitespore's head on the body of his beheaded rat ogre! It also had a flame thrower on his right hand, and a big barrel in place of his belly. Blitzkrieg took out his last wheel of poisoned and warpstoned cheese, rolled it into the corridor, and ran back to the room hoping the bait will work.

The bathroom was loud from the adventurers trying to break through the freshly found one-way secret panel. Suddenly the ogre got sick and collapsed, then a swarm of mutant rats bursted out of his chest. There was a  huge bump on the corridor too, which shook the whole level. Päther and Blitzkrieg looked out and saw the abomination lying on the ground in agony: the bait worked! Blitzkrieg wanted to go there and behead him, but the creature with its last breath pushed a button. Green flames bursted out of his weapon and barrel immolating everything in their path. It was a miracle Blitzkrieg and Päther could jump back into the bathroom in time!

The survivors didn't waste more time, they entered the hole in the wall, and spent hours wading through the sewers until they could surface. Päther reported Heinz von Tomatenhaus about what was going on in the asylum, while the others returned to the Reaver's Return with their new companions.

ZWEIHÄNDER Session #3: Feuer Frei!

It seemed impossible to organize a single session of anything in November due to people being busy or ill, so we didn't have the third ZWEIHÄNDER session until the 25th of November. This time I didn't run any classics, but something entirely of my own. The group was made of the following ne'er-do-wells:

• Agonia Gimdinasdotr, a dwarf adherent of Valaya who is a magnet for flammable ammo.
• Blitzkrieg, a dwarf slayer, sworn enemy of everything rodent.
• Päther von Sternwart, a human astrologer who just found a proper master.

In their downtime Agonia helped the Shallyans in a local hospital, Blitzkrieg got drunk and well known in the Reaver's Return for his incredible tales about the vile skaven, and Päther found himself an arabyan Celestial wizard for teacher called Abdul al Sahir.

"Sir, a half-naked dwarf with orange mohawk
wants to have a word with you."

After listening some rumors about missing sewerjacks and the mysterious hulking monster in the sewers Blitzkrieg found out that the tilean crime lord Don Cornetto has a bounty on Emilio Valentina's head. He went to the Blind Pig tavern to meet him. Agonia followed him, but remained outside of the dirty establishment, not suspecting at all that the slayer won't return for hours. Blitzkrieg not only earned the gratitude of the mob, he was also invited for a lunch, and got a new task fitting his taste: the Cornettos are looking for information about the Yellow Fang cult's hideout, who are becoming stronger day by day.

Back in the Reaver's Return they met a young man was looking for them. Schultz Brenner was a student of the University of Nuln. He was working with the Imperial Gunnery School on a new invention with some of the most talented smiths and physicists of the empire: they were building a self-propelled flying missile (aka rocket)! One day during the late hours he was still in the Imperial Gunnery School, and noticed some shady figures tinkering with the huge missile. He checked out what's going on, which ended with a chase, and the storage burning down with green fire. Schultz was sure he saw ratlike humanoids, but naturally no one believed his story, and was fired. Rumors about their last adventure led him to the party. The rocket will be tested in public tomorrow, and he is afraid the vile ratmen will sabotage it in some way tonight. He wants to check if everything is okay, and if they manage to meet his nemeses, then so much the better: he can finally clear his name!

A place of learning and bang bang.

Of course the best way to get into the school was through the sewers. Thanks to the rumors the mood was already a bit tense, then panic erupted when waves started rising in the sewage and the tunnels started shaking. A huge but skinny rat ogre appeared, still following his last order tirelessly from last adventure. Schultz failed his resolve test and leaked into his pants while climbing on a nearby ladder. The rat ogre attacked Blitzkrieg who dodged the blow, then Päther cast Sleep with success, and the slayer finished the beast by hacking off its head (which he naturally kept as a trophy). 

In the university Schultz realized he lost his key, so Blitzkrieg had to bust down the door. The party ended up in a large hall. Schultz was scared when he saw the rocket was gone. Then something moved under the sheets covering some device. Blitzkrieg tore the sheets down and found a naked and scared couple. The boy turned out to be Schultz's classmate Otto, who was having a rendezvous here. While Blitzkrieg kept terrorizing the girl with his creepy behavior, Hans told the adventurers that the rocket was already moved to Aver Isle, and they were hiding because earlier some creepy cloaked figures were searching here for something too.

On the way back they saw a dark cloaked figure shadowing them. Päther tried to hit him with the crossbow and Blitzkrieg charged, but they couldn't hit the running figure until (to everyone's surprise) Schultz took out a pistol from under his coat and shot. The spy stopped with hands in the air, so Blitzkrieg could finally wrestle him on the cobblestone. It was a member of the Yellow Fang, who was not only scared shitless, but was also a coward, so told a lot to his enemies. Our heroes learned that a squad of skaven is already on their way to attack Aver Isle. They weren't planning to sabotage the rocket: they wanted to steal and study it, so they can build one, fly to the Morrslieb, and have an endless supply of warpstone. There was a force of skaven and Yellow Fangs moving towards the island via boats, the barracks were rigged, and Whitespore (whose skull Agonia bashed on her last adventure) is alive and well. He even told where the hideout is, although the adventurers were skeptical about his realiability.

After the interrogation our heroes discussed what to do. Blitzkrieg hurried to Don Cornetto and told him about the coming Yellow Fang attack, plus left the cultist there as a gift. The Don gave a dozen of mercenaries to help the group. Päther gave a karl to a boy on the Marktplatz to send a message to the Aver Isle guards about the bombs. After regrouping they hurried to the island. When the company reached the end of the bridge the barracks blew up with green flames, but fortunately there were no casualties: the city guards were already outside mounting an attack against the invaders.

Maybe next time they will bring out the big guns.

Crater to crater, bunker to bunker the party advanced through the firing range until they reached the rocket. Blitzkrieg attacked the cultists and skavens loitering around the stands that kept the rocket upright. From the stands Whitespore looked down to check who is disturbing his work. His head injury was covered by a metal plate, and when he saw Agonia he lost his mind and started firing at her while screaming, which set the dwarf's clothes on warpfire. She quickly undressed and continued the battle in her undergarments. Thanks to the soldiers and the mercenaries the skaven were outnumbered and started retreating. Schultz shot Whitespore, whom Blitzkrieg beheaded to make sure he's gone for good. At the end the guard captain Heinz von Tomantenhaus thanked the group for their help. The guards started cleaning up, the surviving mercs returned to their boss, and the tired heroes went back to the Reaver's Return.

Schultz's name was cleared, thus he could resume his work at the University and the Imperial Gunnery School. Blitzkrieg proved his stories to his drinking buddies by presenting Whitespore's head, which later was stolen from his room somehow. When the trio met again they were planning an attack on the Yellow Fang hideout the cultist spoke about earlier.

All in all it was a fun and smooth session. I was satisfied how well the players used their resources to save the guards and gain advantage in the forthcoming battle, and it was good to see that they want to put an end to the Yellow Fang menace because "it's personal now". There are still many other questions they want answered though. Who stole Whitespore's head? Who framed the party when they arrived to Nuln? What's with Oldenhaller's promised info? What were the halfling and the squire doing in the meantime?

ZWEIHÄNDER Session #2: The Oldenhaller Contract

After the first session's mayhem I introduced some optional and house rules to speed things up. First, cannon fodder foes will follow the underling rules: they can't save action points for reactions, and after a serious or bleeding wound they will die or retreat. Second, good old swift attack makes a return, so players can attack multiple times with an increasing penalty to their attack rolls. Third, following the rules about opposing skill tests (a bonus to your skill check means a penalty to the opposing check, and vice versa) leads to petty spells being harder to dispel or resist than greater spells. I changed that by giving the dispel or resist test the exact bonus or penalty the caster gets to his invocation test. I also promised my players I won't use Misfortune Points until they learn the rules properly, but in truth I just simply keep forgetting about them.

These changes worked like a charm - the game run much smoother. Unfortunately two players couldn't come, so the group for the session held on the 8th of October was:

• Agonia Gimdinasdotr, a dwarf adherent of Valaya, who turned into a fucking warmachine.
• Blitzkrieg, a dwarf slayer, still suffering from his broken ribs, and a glutton for punishment.
• Päther von Sternwart, a human astrologer looking for a proper master.
• Sternchen, an ogre hedgewise, who plans to write a gastro journal.

After an exhausting journey with the roadwardens the party finally reached Nuln. There they wasted half a day with passing the gate, and answering the roadwardens on the interrogation. When the four of them were released Hans Ernst, a roadwarden they befriended on their journey told them that someone is trying to bribe some big dogs to blame the whole incident on them, and put a bounty on their heads. He asked them to meet him next morning in the Reaver's Return, where the innkeeper still owes him a favor.

On their way to the inn a man named Grolsch van Eyke invited the party to an elegant club, but after some discussion they ignored him and moved on. In a dirty alley they found the Reaver's Return. After accidentally breaking through the stuck door they met the angry innkeeper, Rudolf Grasser. Mentioning Hans Ernst calmed him down. Rudolf gave them dinner, and showed them the best room he could offer - with a nice view of the canal. Someone noticed the bolts weren't fastened, which was quickly fixed. Closing the dirty windows turned out to be a good idea: during the night a cat burglar tried to break in, but had to flee when he realized the windows are bolted, and someone is awake.

Good old Oldenhaller, the first employer of many WFRP characters.

Hans arrived during the breakfast, and told the group a councillor called Albrecht Oldenhaller might be able to help, in exchange of some services. Oldenhaller lived in the fancy Altestadt, and knew everything about his new employees already. He offered 100 crowns each and information about who wants to frame the group for recovering a long lost family artifact: a red ring held by the Schatzenhaimer gang, who didn't deliver it to Oldenhaller. A servant lead the adventurers to the entrance of the Asylum, an underground complex made of interconnected cellars and sewers, and inhabited by three bands.

The Schatzenheimer door had a notice asking visitors to knock and wait. Following the advice had no results, so Blitzkrieg opened the door, and fell into the pit trap under the carpet. The Schatzenheimer HQ was full of corpses. After some search the party found a wounded man called Ulrich Vogel, who almost attacked them with his crossbow. While Agonia took care of his wounds, Ulrich told the visitors about how the tilean Valantina gang raided the Schatzenheimers not so long ago. He also remembered his boss, Kurt Holger wearing a red ring, but he couldn't recall any deals with Oldenhaller. In Kurt's room the party found a small box with a layer of lead within, and the corpse of Kurt, which showed the signs of the Red Death, and was missing a finger. The party took the box, and a notice from a Valantina corpse, which had today's password.

Entering the Valantina territory was easy: not only did the guards accept the password, but they were awaiting for some workers, because they were busy moving. The notorious Yellow Fang gang showed up and attacked the neighbouring Huydermans base. The Valantinas quickly killed the Huydermans messenger who asked for help, built a barricade, and wanted to leave as soon as possible. The Yellow Fangs are weird people they don't want to mess with. After asking around a bit more the adventurers met Emilio Valantina's bodyguard, Sebastiano Sansovini. He told them to wait until Emilio finishes his prayers, but after some waiting he got nervous and opened Emilio's office. The Valantina's leader was dead. The ring was missing, his head was missing, and blood trails lead to a secret door that opened to the sewers.

Following the sewers the party found a large area with mine carts and rails leading down. Someone was lying in one of the carts. It was the fresh corpse of Emilio's assassin. He had the ring and the head with him, and was full of rat bites. Seeing the growing and closing swarm of chittering rats the adventurers got into the carts, and released the breaks. The rails went down to the loading bay, and the carts hit the buffer thanks to the broken breaks. There our heroes met the wastelander Huydermans, who greeted them as friends.

Their leader Dirck Huydermans told them how they were attacked by the Yellow Fangs, who are waiting at the cove for something at the moment. There were two options for escape: through the Valantinas, or through the Yellow Fangs. The first offense through the Valantinas was a failure: the tileans used explosive barrels to seal the tunnel.

The second had more planning, and included the group using another mine cart to roll into the cove, attack the Yellow Fangs, while the wastelanders covered them from behind. In the meantime the party eavesdropped some discussion between a foe and their leader about an incoming reinforcement. The skirmish started with rather amusing results. Agonia jumped off the cart and killed one of the ragged bandits with ease, Blitzkrieg hurt himself while jumping off but killed another, a third one was hit by the cart, and Sternchen fell into the sewers after the cart hit the buffer.

Hits like a truck, loyal as a dog, dumb as a brick.

Soon the adventurers realised the Yellow Fangs weren't mere criminals: they spoke strangely, acted crazy, and were lead by a ratlike beastman wearing gasmask, a metal tank, and two pistols connected to the tank. Blitzkrieg immediately recognized the skaven and attacked with frenzy, only to get burned by warpfire, and suffer a deadly blow to the shoulder from behind. Fortunately he had a Fate Point to burn... Agonia charged the skaven, who burned her before suffering a deadly injury to the head. While the rest of the cultists were taken care of Päther heard the sounds of struggle from behind. The reinforcements have arrived: a rat ogre charged mindlessly into the chamber! He rushed through the ogre, into the sewage, and continued running forward, into the dark...

With the rat ogre gone the struggle didn't end. Rats swarmed into the cove. Päther took down the tank from the skaven engineer, then with Sternchen's help they tried to start the engines of the weird skaven boat they found, while Agonia was throwing rats out of the vessel. Finally the engine whirred, and the boat bursted out of the cove with insane speed. The sewers ended, the boat jumped out unto the Reik, and almost collided with a ship.

After the exciting boat trip the adventurers drowned the boat, put the barely living Blitzkrieg in the Reaver's Return, then visited Oldenhaller. They told their employer that the ring is infected, asked for their rewards, has some chit-chat, then went back to the inn. During the night they learned that Hans Ernst was probably helpful out of remorse: secretly he and his friends took the bounty for Hans Jinkerst, who was actually killed by our heroes. They also learned that Ulrich Vogel's head is worth a few crowns too (whom they saved), and there are crime leaders who will gladly have the head of Emilio on their walls (which is rotting in one of their backpacks).

And somewhere in the sewers of Nuln there is a rat ogre still charging forward, following his last order...

The Oldenhaller Contract is a classic Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay adventure. It is the introductory adventure at the end of the 1st edition core rulebook, and thus it was the first experience of many WFRP Game Masters and players. It might be a bit dated, it might be rather linear, but it introduces many of the Warhammer Fantasy tropes I love, and quickly teaches you that the Old World is not Faerûn. It is also an urban adventure, so I thought it would be ideal as the second part of our campaign. I made some changes to it of course: I replaced the Nurgle cultists with skaven and their slaves, I changed when the ring's powers are revealed along with the protective device, and altered the beginning to link it to Night of Blood. I was satisfied with the results: we had fun, and a lot of hooks were introduced I can use in the future.

ZWEIHÄNDER Session #1: Night of Blood

We had our first ZWEIHÄNDER session on the 16th of September. I ran the classic module from White Dwarf and Apocrypha Now called Night of Blood for six players. Our protagonists were:

• Agonia Gimdinasdotr, a dwarf adherent of Valaya with a troubled past.
• Blitzkrieg, a dwarf slayer, and sworn enemy of skaven.
• Odger Tobold, a halfing pugilist armed with a stool, a tabletop, and no testicles.
• Johann von Immelscheld, a human squire who hates Chaos with a passion.
• Päther von Sternwart, a human astrologer who wants to join the Colleges of Magic.
• Sternchen, an ogre hedgewise who has a living stump in place of his right leg.

Things that go bump in the night.

This unlikely group left Wittgendorf for Nuln on the Geheimnisnacht of 2502, thinking they can reach the next inn before nightfall. Thanks to the pouring rain, the ogre's slowness, and bad directions from locals they didn't succeed. Their advance on the muddy roads of the Nattern-forest was suddenly halted when a wounded deer burst out of the woods and stumbled. Their hopes for free meat were crushed when the hunters followed: a hound-like beastmen, a mutant with snail-like eyes, another with tentacles, and a pair of furries. Johann and Blitzkrieg charged without hesitation. After the first furry beast fell the leader, a scaly bovine beastman emerged from the wood to start a lengthy melée with Blitzkrieg. The battle only ended when Päther cast Subdue on the gor. He also saved Johann's hide with the spell, who held the ground against the other furry, and the canine beastman. Sternchen called forth the winds of magick to disarm and blast his foes, crapping himself in the process thanks to a Chaos Manifestation. Agonia took her splitting hammer and tried to help wherever she could. Odger pursued the snail-eyed freak into the forest, and took him down with a chokehold. A bit later the ogre attived, and took some of the mutant's meat with him for tasting.

Blitzkrieg got an infected wound, so finding a clean inn became even more important. After a while lightning illuminated an inn the distance. The gate was closed, but light came out of the windows, so Johann and Blitzkrieg climbed in through the wall. Odger meanwhile visited the ferry, where he found bloodstains, broken furniture, and some crowns in a bag. The ogre saw him, so they split the loot. From the stables disturbed neighs could be heard, so while the angry Johann kept banging on the door, Agonia, Odger, and Sternchen examined it. Opening the gate the horses ran out, nearly knocking the ogre down. Within the corpse of a boy was found, with a huge bitemark on his arm.

After a while the grossly fat innkeeper opened the bar room's door. His sole guest was a roadwarden, and a boy with bulbous eyes was washing up the floor behind the bar. The roadwarden  Hans Jinkerst was distrustful towards the new guests, just as the innkeeper Otto. They told there was a bandit attack recently, and accused the party with being criminals too. Otto said the house was full, but in the end Hans convinced him to rent the common rooms to the new guests. Odger also tried to cook the venison he cut from the deer, but without any skills in cooking he only burned it. In the meantime Agonia cleaned Blitzkrieg's wound. Otto was shocked to learn the doom of his stablehand, but Hans said that's another good reason to keep the inn closed for the night.

After getting their room our heroes realized that Otto locked their door, and their food was spiked, which wore them down a bit. Looking out the window Johann saw Otto leading a three legged monster into the building. The party hacked the door down, while Sternchen started jumping in the room until the floor broke down, and he fell into the kitchen with the ogre. Following a chanting the adventurers arrived in the cellar, where Odger fell and hurt his head thanks to a tripwire. In his anger he retreated to the kitchen.

Might be a joke in the wargame, but here this guy would
have massacred the party with ease.

Under the cellar there was an ancient shrine built from cyclopean stones. Hans was chanting in front of a blasphemous idol of Tzeentch. Without his clothes the many eyes growing on his shoulder and breast were visible. He was with the fake innkeeper Otto, the kid with the huge eyes, the three legged freak, and an elegant noble with a skullface. In one corner the murdered staff and guests were thrown, in the other those who were only asleep from drugs.  Hans asked whether his visitors are willing to talk, but Johann and Blitzkrieg charged, so the sorcerer answered by summoning the Flames of Tzeentch. Agonia silenced him by casting Hush, so for the rest of the battle he had to rely on his pistol. Blitzkrieg was knocked out when Otto released all the gas in his body through a huge fart unto the him, while the skullface wounded Agonia with his sword. Agonia cast Aeagis to protect herself, but her Channeling produced a Chaos Manifestation that made her hair stand up. Päther used Subdue again to great effect. During the battle Odger returned drugged, and after a charge he beat Hans to death with his stool. When all the cultists were slaughtered the party started knocking down an idol. After the first hit a Daemon started manifesting above it. The process was hindered by Johann feinting because of all the Peril he suffered, and the statue barely taking any damage from the weapons, but luckily they managed to break it into pieces before the Daemon could materialize.

After the battle the hostages were woken up. There was a lengthy argument about what should be the fate of the whole place. In the end they didn't burn it down, and Agonia consecrated it with a ritual. In the morning a group of roadwardens arrived who asked the adventurers to follow them to Nuln, where they will have to help them write a report about what happened.

I ran the adventure mostly as written, but I spiced the mutants up a bit because originally most of them was too generic for my taste. The session was rough and bumpy. Not only did we have to get used to a new ruleset, we also had players without any former WFRP experience, and there plenty of arguments about who does what. Having two arcane spellcasters and a trigger-happy Witch Hunter-wannabe didn't help either. The first battle was tedious (mostly because of using too tough monsters), but by the end the game ran much smoother. Still, I ended up implementing some house rules starting the second session to speed things up. They helped a lot, but I'll leave the details to my next report.