Roaming through the Old World - ep2

 

Last session left our "heroes" in the middle of the road, getting soaked to the skin, surrounded by the corpses of highwaymen, beastmen, mutants and some hapless coach passengers.

At this point,  Aaron Gilmour remembered that the Hooded Man inn was less than half a mile further on (cue flash of ominous lightning and rolling rumble of thunder). Given the liklihood of meeting further chaos nasties if the group stayed put, they all trudged through the mud. Dark thoughts and curiosity nagging some minds, gnawing hunger and chilling damp nagging others.

After what seems like a sodden eternity, the hard edges of a man made structure appear through the gloom. As they group gets closer, a lightning flash illuminates the high walls of a coaching - the sign of The Hooded Man swinging in the gusty wind.

 hammering on the gates elicits no response so Aaron moves around the side of the walls to look for another entrance. He comes across the keeper's hut for a small ferry crossing a river to the side of the inn, the door swinging in the wind and no sign of illumination inside. Overturned furniture and a bloody track across the threshold attest to a vicious struggle sometime in the near past. 

At the end of a track leading back to the inn, he finds an unlocked side gate into the inn's courtyard. Summoning the group they move in.

The courtyard appears deserted, the coach house and stables closed. Light seeps around the shuttered windows. As the group crossed the courtyard, the sound of laughter and merriment from the inn grows louder. Rudiger knocks heartily on the door, halting the laughter. After a brief silence,  the sound of chairs being hastily scraped across the floor is faintly heard before bolts are slammed back and the door opened.

An immensely rotund figure peers through the crack in the door, 

"yaars? wot yer want?"  

The huddled group in the rain share bemused glances before explaining the need for food, drink and warmth. After initially pleading a full house, a voice from within the inn shouts "Otto! stop being such an ungracious host and let the poor travelers in!"

Otto, begrudgingly opens the door to admit the group, bolting the door hastily behind them. The warmth from the open fire soon starts steaming the rain from the group's sodden clothes as they take in the scheme. Behind the bar a gangly barman with large, staring eyes and no chin sullenly mops the floor whilst a road warden leans against the bar with a wry smirk across his face.

"full huh?" questions Rudiger. 
"we 'ad a full coach in this evenin', they've gone ter bed."

introducing himself as Hans, the road warden encourages Otto to provide food and drink for the travelers the proceeds to question their need to travel abroad on such a foul night. 

The conversation moves through the events of the evening and Hans relates the story of a bandit attack on the inn earlier in the day - hence the wrecked and bloodied ferryman's cottage. Once the party are settled with drinks in front of the fire, Hans joins Otto in the kitchen to "smooth the inn keep's nerves". Nynn attempts to list at the door but noisily knocks a chair against the bar as she passes. the bug eyed barman appears from the kitchen and shoos her back from behind the bar and continues his mopping.

presently, Hans re-appears and continues questioning the party as to their travel plans whilst Otto serves bowls of steaming stew. Saskia turns her nose up at the contents of the bowl and munches on some dried berries she had in a pouch, Rudiger and Eivor attack their bowls with gusto whilst the others pick at their food but ultimately leave most of it, the taste and smell of the stew managing to suppress even there appetites. Cressida spends her time cleaning the blunderbuss she looted from the highwayman's corpse, whilst Saskia stares longingly at the doorway out of the inn.

the question of accommodation brings a panicked look from Otto, but a calming glance from Hans elicits the offer of the common room for the night. Saskia point blank refuses and demands to be let out to sleep in the stables, this is done with an amused shrug from Hans.

The party are shown upstairs, along a bare, damp floored corridor to a musty, untidy common room. Upon entry, Otto locks the door behind the party and heads downstairs.

Nynn feeling more than a little unsettled at this point, drags a cot across the door to be doubly sure of her safety.

Meanwhile, Saskia makes her way across the courtyard and unbolts the door to the stables. She narrowly avoids being trampled by the panicked horses bolting from the stables as they force their way through the doors. Picking herself up, Saskia sets about recovering the stupid animals and returning them to the safety of the barn. Once the animals are settled, she curls up in one of the stables and goes to sleep.

Back at the Inn, Eivor and Rudiger start to feel VERY drowsy whilst paranoia gets the better of Cressida and, using her hammer and one of her spikes, proceeds to "tinker" with the door lock. Eivor decides the drowsiness is due to something in the stew so clears his stomach in the quickest way he knows. the group tries to settle for the night after getting a fire going in the hearth. Cressida, hears footsteps ascending the stairs and pausing outside their door. Whoever it was then retraces their steps downstairs and the scrape and thunk of the bolts on the inn door are heard opening.

Marie opens the shutters in time to see a figure moving across the courtyard towards the stables, shortly followed by the high pitched scream that she's heard before!

Saskia is woken by the bug eyed barman creeping towards her in the stable, she screams and lashes out with her staff and a struggle ensues. Hans quickly appears and also tries to subdue her!! 

The rest of the group rush from their room and out through the inn door to aid Saskia. Hans turns to engage this new threat and the fight is pushed into the barn. the horses panic and kick their stalls adding to the noise and pandemonium. as the group gain the upper hand on Hans, a spider-legged figure drops from the hayloft onto Rudiger and the party fight for their lives! Rudiger bellows for the blessing of Sigmar to smite his foes and, with a mighty swing of his warhammer, smashed the head of the spider-legged foe through his shoulders! Meanwhile, Saskia smashes the forehead of the barman with the butt of her staff and Eiver nearly be-heads Hans with a back handed swing of his sword.

As quiet descends, the party realise that Otto is nowhere to be seen. 

A return and search of the inn, uncovers the trap door to the cellar and the bloodies trail that starts at the top steps and leads down into the gloom. Finding the trail abruptly ending in the middle of the cellar floor, Saskia uncovers a secret trap door hidden in the flagstones. This leads down a flight of stairs, the flicker of illumination somewhere far below. 

gathering their nerve, the party descend further into a stone room, three corpses piled  on one side, bound, gagged and unconscious captives on the other. At the far end of the room stands a pink statue made of an unnatural pink stone stands at the centre of a shifting octagonal pattern on the floor. the surface pf the statue appears to writhe as if were some living liquid. saskia and Marie feel the chill slickness of evil magic crawl across their skin.

Aaron and Nynn move to untie and rouse the captives whilst the rest of the party cautiously move into the room. Otto lunges from an alcove halfway down the room, swinging an axe as he barrels into Rudiger. A vicious but short lived fight ensues, Otto collapsing into a bloodied mountain of flesh on the floor.

Rudiger approaches the statue and starts to pray to Sigmar to give him the strength to cleanse the foul place but is cut short as  a crossbow bolt, fired from behind the statue, grazes his temple and knocks him sprawling to the floor.

Cressida lets loose with her blunderbuss, missing her target but blowing chips from the statue. A pink and purple flash of light  and eruption of mist heralds the sudden appearance of tentacled pink and purple monstrosity!the four armed creature leers from a face set in its chest and rushes the group , flaming arms out stretched, gibbering and cackling as it goes!

meanwhile, a figure with a grinning skull for a head steps from behind the statue and proceeds to lay into Eivor with his sword. Saskia lets out a blood curdling whoop an sets to the daemon with Rudiger  and Cressida whilst Marie tries to support with magic darts. Nynn moves to support Eivor in dealing with the skull faced mutant. Aaron rouses the unconscious victims and moves them to the safety of the inn.....

A desperate struggle ensues in the underground room, the daemon shrugging off many of the blows landing on it and, even when it seems to be defeated, splits into two smaller blue versions of itself!

Skullface proves a tough match for even the combined forces of Nynn and Eivor but the group do eventually prevail, the daemon finally dissipating to mist and skull face bleeding out from a severed hand.

Rudiger takes to the statue with his hammer, chanting blessing to Sigmar whilst smashing it to dust. the pink hue fades to yellow sandstone and the Octagonal pattern winks out as the statue falls to the floor.

the captives turn out to be two young women, Etelka and Heidi Kurtzmann, travelling back to their parents in Middenheim, Kurt the true landlord of the inn and Heinrich, the surviving coachman. 

Later investigation of the stables uncovers the half eaten body of Kurt's young son in the hay loft. bodies are gathered, funeral rites for the dead humans undertaken by Rudiger and a pyre by the side of the river destroys the remains of the mutants.

Road wardens arrive at first light, questioning the party about the corpses found up the road in an abandoned wagon. Thankfully, the Testimony of the inn survivors allays most of the warden's suspicions, though Cressida does receive some pointed questions about her look alike in the carriage...

the party move on with Heinrich and the Kurtzmann sisters as soon as the coach can be tacked up, their journey continuing towards Altdorf.