die Alte Welt

A deal was brokered with Anthony, and we successfully completed the transaction, the store is ours. We were given the grand tour, when a young boy came with a note for the group. It was a message from Derrick, their contact in the thieves guild. They met with him at their usual place, the Wenches’ Itch. There, they were told that the leader of the guild wanted to meet with them! Apparently their work dealing with the upstart rival guild had been extremely satisfactory, and the leader wanted to meet the wunderkind.

They were led, blindfolded, to a secret location, and brought through a very tastefully decorated basement to see the leader, whose name was Gregory. He was very smartly dressed, and seemed to be more of a legitimate businessman than a thief. He talked with them a while, and asked them about their plans for the store they had bought. Angran told him about his plans for the apothecary business, Corvin played up how they would be willing to act as a fence for the guild. Gregory seemed pleased, saying he hoped that they would be more willing to deal with the guild than Anthony had been. And, he mentioned to Angran that he hoped he would be willing to make poisons for them.

But, on to business! Gregory had a job for them, which seemed to be better suited for their brutish ways. There was a golden chalice which was owned by a rich family, the Macintyres, and Gregory wanted it stolen. So far he hadn’t had any luck with his regular thieves, which were not as suited to the straight up brawling style.

They went to the manor, and scouted it out. They came up with a plan, where Angran would distract the guard out front, by pretending to be a tutor investigating the family for potential jobs. Corvin, Hennessey and Tardach all snuck in through an upper window. Corvin got the jump on a guard half asleep in the hallway, and they took him out quickly. They searched his body and found the key to the door he was guarding. Upon opening the door, they saw the chalice, but Hennessey quickly noticed that the room was trapped with a tripwire. He was able to quickly find and disarm it. They grabbed the chalice and ran out, Hennessey wrapping a bola around a guard running up the stairs, as they all quickly exit out the window and run.

They got away with the chalice, but a disagreement soon arose, as Angran and Corvin seemed to be expecting to get away with some more than just the chalice, whereas Hennessey was opposed to the idea. They had an argument about their actual goal in joining the thieves guild, with Hennessey only wanting to join and work for them, for the ultimate goal of bringing down the guild, and arresting their leader.

Corvin asks around to see if there are any pawn or second hand stores for sale. The plan is to set up a legitimate storefront that can serve as a front for any sort of nefarious, illegal activities we care to engage in.

Taking advice from a beggar, we all head down to the docks, where we find a shop being run by an middle aged bald man by the name of Anthony. Angran talks to him for a bit about buying his shop, and he’s quite amenable to the idea. He tells us that he needs to talk it over with his family, and to come back tomorrow.

Angran heads over to the Apothecary Guild Hall in order to attempt to join. They give him a short test of his Apothecary skills, and he manages to show a decent amount of skill. Afterwards, for a fee of 5g, they induct him into the guild, giving him rights to buy and sell herbs, reagents, potions and draughts.

We all go to sleep, hoping to complete some purchases the next day so we can get to more adventurous activities. However, in the middle of the night, Angran hears someone fiddling with the shutters on the window. Quietly raising his bow, he aims an arrow at the window. As the shutters ease open, he fires an arrow straight into the cat burglar’s arm. Losing his grip, he falls to his death on the street below.

We are unable to identify the corpse, except that it’s a young man, probably around the age of 19. Angran gets the idea to take his corpse to the Thieves’ Guild and see if they know him. So, hoisting the corpse up as if he’s a drunk companion, we stumble into the night, heading toward the Wench’s Itch.

Unfortunately, our contact in the guild is unable to identify the corpse, and his best guess is that he’s a young kid looking for a thrill. Guess he found it…

The next day, we head off to meet with the Merchant’s Guild, to get permission to buy Anthony’s pawn shop near the docks. Without further ado, he stamps our application form Approved ! With approval in hand, we head directly to Anthony’s shop to buy it.

Anthony says that he is happy to sell the shop, and plans to move to the country. Since we need someone to run the counter, we ask him if he’d be willing to stay on. He declines, stating that it’s simply gotten too unsafe to stay in the city. Tardach promises to clean up the surrounding area and keep the place safe. Anthony says that he’ll talk to his wife and see if she would be ok with things.

Our merry band is out looking for work while waiting for the merchant and apothecary guilds to get back to them about setting up shop in town. They went to talk to Fred, their friend in the city guard. He told them about some standing jobs to keep vagrants in the city moving.

However, they completely ignored this job in order to meet with their contact in the thieves guild, meeting him at the Wenches’ Itch. He gave them a job to take out someone who defected, and is trying to start up a competing group of thieves, Heinrich Lasseter. They try to find out any vices he has, like drinking and whores.

And so, they come up with a plan. Angran will come calling on them with several whores and lots of alcohol, claiming to be wanting to ingratiate himself with the new power in town, and so brings them these gifts. He will get them drunk and happy, and then sneak out to tell the group where Heinrich was, so they can sneak in and assassinate him.

The plan was a huge success. Under the guise of Marc Antonostri, Angran, along with 15 whores and a keg of rotgut, pretended to be a new businessman in town who wanted to pay the proper respects to the new power in town. The guards and other men with him were very eager to plow into both the keg and the whores. Heinrich was understandably paranoid, never leaving his room upstairs, but he ultimately allowed Angran in, and succumbed to the flattery and gifts he supplied.

After a few hours, the whole crew was sufficiently plied, and so Angran signaled his companions to come in. They entered through a second floor window, coming down from the roof. The door to his room was locked, but they knocked and one of the whores let him in. Tardach and Corvin both attacked him in his sleep, killing him. Angran hurried the remaining whores out of the room. The group decided to give all of them an extra tip, apologized for the extreme circumstances, and asked if they would be willing to take part in a plan like this again – to which some of them agreed.

The remaining thugs who were still passed out on the ground they manacled and tied together, taking their belongings, and then searching the building for the papers the thieves guild required.

Tardach’s thoughts.

1. Arrived today in Altdorf. Toll was very high. Had to leave horses in stable. I wonder if guards are open to bribes.

2. Went to town guard station used past experience with Road Wardens to ingratiate ourselves. Got referrals to Anthony the Blacksmith to sell, and to Franz the Cartographer for maps of the city. Set up to meet for drinks with Fred next night.

3. Went to Anthony the Blacksmith. Seemed trustworthy. Sold items from adventuring,and got a good price. We dropped off our equipment for repairs/cleaning. Wanted to look our best when we go to Merchant’s Guild.

4. Went to Franz the Cartographer. He is kind of a dick. He seemed very wealthy. We bought a map and asked some questions. I don’t particularly like him. Might be a possible target for robbery. District he is in highly guarded, and it would be difficult.

5. Rented room at inn and slept.

6. Wake and get our equipment from Anthony. Went to merchants guild. Filled out paperwork and started process of being business owners and possibly land owners in Altdorf.

7. Angran went to apocathary guild. Hennesy myself and Corvin went to docks district.

8. Corvin is most comfortable dealing with the underworld. He tries to get info from beggars and fails. Attempts to do the same with bartender of the Wench’s Itch and fails again. Failed bribes frustrate him. He sees a shady character in corner of Wenches Itch, shows him one of our official Road Warden badges and sets up a meeting to sell it that night at Midnight. Finally a breakthrough.

9. That night we go drinking with Fred the town guard at a bar frequented by the guards. We buy drinks all night. Corvin, Hennesy, and myself don’t drink much. We have a meeting in a few hours that could be dangerous. Fred opens up, introduces us to some of the other guards. We leave Angran and Fred drinking. Fred tells us he could have work for us and to check in with him whenever.

10. We meet with our contact at midnight in the dock’s district. We sell badge for 60 gold and set up a meeting with someone higher up the food chain. We are on our way to infiltrating the thief’s guild. Meeting is scheduled to occur at the Wench’s Itch.

11. Return to Inn. Two days and lots of progress. I feel confident and in my element. I will run this city.

We head back to the monastery to collect the reward from Brother Charles, and he’s so pleased he immediately hands over 150 gold.

Plans

• Buy some property in the trade district, like a blacksmith shop, or something that could become a blacksmith shop
• Make contact w/ current thieves guild
  • Temple of Ranald, maybe?
• Check w/ city guard if there are any bounties, especially on local thieves
• Look for a local apothecary, see if they have any adventuring needed. Also look for local schools of magic.

We really didn’t play much this time. Instead we spent the entire session eating our Chinese food and B.S.’ing about upcoming video games, the future of D&D, and how to handle people dropping in and out over the summer. Still, it’s fun to get together with friends, even if all you do is shoot the breeze.

After killing the hideous mutants, Angran was very curious about their mutations. He began chopping bits and pieces off of the mutants in order to keep for further study. Corvin was horrified by this, and spent the whole time praying to Sigmar to protect him from the horrors of Chaos.

At this point, it was getting dark. We had not yet found the leader, but there was no point in going further. So, we bedded down and decided to search more the next day.

However, in the middle of the night, we heard a crashing and moaning in the woods around us, so we got up and prepared ourselves.

Crashing in the clearing came three disgusting mutants, one much larger than the others and obviously the leader we were looking for. Without hesitation we charged in and attacked.

As usual, Hennessey was able to immobilize one of the mutants, and Angran and Tardach peppered him full of arrows while he tried to disentangle himself from the bola. Meanwhile, Corvin busied himself pounding on the leader with his mace.

When face to hideous face with the mutant leader, Corvin stumbles and the massive brute attempts to wrap him up in his tentacles. As the Chaos warped limbs touch Corvin, he feels bile rising in his throat when he thinks about the chaos and evil surrounding him (see quote below).

Finally, after trading blows for a while, Corvin manages to smash his mace through the beasts chest, shattering his ribcage. Blood and guts flies in Corvin’s face and he screams in terror as he frantically tries to scrape off the chaos infested gore. Making a sign against evil, he manages to regain his composure.

Standing among the downed mutants, we decide it’s time to go back and get our reward from Brother Charles.

Notable Quotes

• “We don’t need to re-enact the bile rising into your mouth. That’s too close to LARP’ing.” – Jordan

After last time, we had eight horses from Lars’s crew. Seeing as how horses are pretty expensive, we decide to keep four for ourselves and sell four back to the Roadwardens. After all, they belonged to them in the first place, before Lars and his crew went rogue.

Jorg tells us that there is a nearby town with an above average rate of chaos mutations. Since it’s on the way to Altdorf, we decide to give it a shot.

We head north along the main road, and two days later find a side road to Priestlicheim. The side road is significantly smaller, and the forest closes in on both sides. Some ways down the road, we come upon a group of hobgoblins harassing a cart driver. Immediately, we drop from our horses and rush to help.

The hobgoblins leave the farmer alone and charge in against us. Hennessey, as usual, shuts them down with his bolas, brining them to the ground. As soon as they are entangled, everyone else takes advantage. In a hail of arrows, two of the hobgoblins are turned into bloody pincushions. The third trades blows with Corvin, neither able to gain the advantage. Breaking the stalemate, Tardach fires an arrow into his left arm, staggering the vile creature. Following that, Angran’s arrow takes him in the knee shredding his leg and bringing him down.

The farmer is quite grateful, but all he has to offer us is oats and grain for our horses. What a letdown…

We arrive at Priestlicheim late at night, and head directly to an inn to spend the night. The next morning we head off to the monastery to seek adventure. The monks immediately recognize us as adventurers. We are introduced to Brother Charles, who tells us that there is a particularly violent mutant who is terrorizing the countryside. He asks us to head out into the forest and eliminate him. Corvin shivers with fear and disgust, as he is revolted by the idea of mutants. Crossing his fingers, he makes a sign to ward off evil.

Striking off into the woods, it doesn’t take us long to find a pack of mutants. Three horrible creatures try to hide, but we still manage to spot them, so they crash out of the woods and attack. Warped beyond recognition, they have tentacles, eyestalks, claws, and other hideous mutations.

Hennessey rushes in, bolas flying, but the mutants manage to dodge. One runs up to Hennessey and slashes him across the arm. Another hulking mutant charges in, but Tardach looses an arrow which knocks him off his feet and he collapses, unconscious. The other two press the attack, but we manage to hold them off. Again, Corvin tries to engage them in melee, while everyone else fires from range. Tardach scores hit after hit with his elfbow, inflicting massive damage on the mutants. Corvin manages to crush one’s arm, killing him from massive blood loss. Hennessey charges the unconscious hulk and finishes him with a spear blow to the head.

Face to face with one of the mutants, Angran attempts a shock spell, but fails miserably. Worse yet, he loses control of the magical energies and is surrounded by an eerie light. The foul power of chaos begins to seep into his mind, but he strengthens his resolve and does not yield to the force of darkness and insanity.

After dodging a blow from the creature, Angran tries again and manages to connect with a shock. The creature is caught unaware and stunned. Taking advantage of the creature’s weakened state, Hennessey and Corvin charge in, but fail miserably in their attacks. Angran is forced to shock him yet again, giving everyone else another chance to wail on him. With that we are able to pound him into oblivion.

The group had set up their ambush, waiting for Lars and their men. They filled the cave with straw and lamp oil, and were planning to lure the men in there, then set everything on fire, and set up a wood lattice outside the cave entrance , and set it on fire.

The lay in wait, and Lars eventually showed up with 6 other goons. 5 of them went in the cave to investigate, and 2 goons remained outside. Suddenly they sprang into action. Hennessy started throwing bolas from a nearby hidden position, and Tardach ran from the woods, grabbed the lattice, and jammed it in the doorway. Angran ran right behind him, grabbing some flaming wood from the fire and lighting the lattice. Hennessy continued throwing Bolas as Corvin ran up and began beating them both with his mace. The goon cried out, hopefully not loudly enough for Lars to hear and be alerted quite yet.

Tardach and Corvin both clobbered the outside goons, as the flames and smoke grew in the cave. Angran tried to conjure magical winds to further blow the flame and smoke in the cave but his spell sputtered and failed. Corvin continued to smash the goons as they trip and fall over the bolas, smashing one in the groin. Angran managed to blow a wind into the cave raising the flames, as Corvin and Tardach take potshots at the goons with bolas ever wrapping around their feet. Ultimately the two goons on watch were killed, with the inside goons all falling unconscious from smoke inhalation. They were all locked up with their own manacles, and forced to march back to the Strutting Cock.

At the Strutting Cock, Angran and Hennessy watched the prisoners, as Tardach and Corvin went inside to apprehend the last member of their gang, who was inside the inn. They went and confronted Bob, who threw his ale mug at Corvin and tried to resist, but they beat the resistance out of him, and completely obliterated his poor body.

They then took all of their horses, and marched the prisoners back to the road warden headquarters.

Corvin asks around about local thieves, trying to determine if there is a guild. He learns that most thieves operate out of Talabheim, and sometimes they’ll send a gang to Hermsdorf.

Speaking with the rest of the party, Corvin mentions that he’s thinking of starting up a thieves’ guild of his own. The others are apathetic, except for Tardach, who really likes the idea.

We head north along the Old Forest Road to Lieske, intending to meet up with some road wardens. Tardach takes the opportunity to do a little hunting. He manages to take a rabbit, skin and clean it. The road is fairly well traveled, and we pass along by merchants, farmers, and such.

In Lieske, we stop at Taal’s Bowers, a fortified coaching Inn that serves as the headquarters for the road wardens. With little effort, we are able to get in to meet with Jorg Schmidtt, chief of the road wardens. He directs us to seek out Lars and bring him in, as word has spread of a rogue road warden, disgracing his hard-working brethren. He also informs us of the standard five silver pence bounty on all greenskins.

To ingratiate the party with the road wardens, Tardach hunts a deer and brings it back to celebrate. We have a friendly party and eat venison all night. The next morning we head back along the road toward the Strutting Cock Inn.

On the road to the Strutting Cock, we come upon a turn in the road. Around the bend, we hear loud sounds of munching and eating. Tardach scouts ahead and finds a beastman chewing on a poor traveler. The beastman’s ears perk up as he hears Tardach approaching, but he cannot see him. Sensing that he has been detected, Tardach immediately goes on the offensive, firing off an arrow. The rest of the party rushes in to join the battle. In a flurry of arrows and crossbow bolts, Tardach and Angran take him down.

At the Inn, Angran talks to the innkeeper, and asks him to help them lure Lars into a trap. He is to tell Lars that a group of drunk brigands were there drinking, and bragged about all the loot they had taken recently and stashed in a cave to the south. When he shows up, we will spring a trap and kill or capture him and his men.

Some scruffy looking men in the inn offer to buy Bianka for 10 gold crowns. We tell them to get away from us, and they go back to their table and grumble and stare. Tardach gets the idea that if we leave them alone, they’ll end up buying some other poor kid. So, we decide to meet them to sell Bianka, then kill them and take the money.

Angran approaches the ruffians and offers them 3 small dolls, telling them that they need to present those to us at the meeting place in order to prove it’s not a setup. Slightly puzzled, they agree. In truth, the dolls are the material component to a curse. By carrying the dolls in their possession, they make themselves vulnerable.

Later that night, outside of town, the meeting takes place. The three men approach and demand the girl. Hennessey responds by throwing a net and them and starting the combat.

The fight is short and brutal. Hennessey easily controls the battlefield with his nets and lasso, while the rest of the party mercilessly slaughters their entangled opponents. It’s definitely not a fair fight, but do pedophiles really deserve that much?

We move on the next day to the Leaping Frog Inn, where we stay the night and then move on to Hermsdorf. At Castle Radische, they meet an uncooperative guard who refuses them entry, telling them to come back the next day. Hennessey and Tardach ask the guard his name, in order to report to the Baron who it was that delayed his daughter from arriving. After stammering a reply, the guard goes and gets the steward.

The Baron is quite happy to see his daughter, having been estranged from her for many years. As a reward he gives us 175 gold crowns and his thanks. He then suggests that if we are seeking adventure, we should head north to Lieske, where the road wardens will surely have work for us.

The following day, we took care of some business in town. Corvin goes to a temple of Morr and donates a few gold crowns in order to pay for the passage into the darkness for all the people we killed up to this point. Tardach took some deer meat he had from hunting to an inn, where he traded it for traveling rations. We kept a week’s worth for ourselves, and gave the rest to the temple of Taal & Rhya in order to feed local orphans.