Roaming through the old world - ep3(ish)

 After an exhausting night at the Hooded Man inn, the party glad to be able to make their way onward in the comfort of a Coach. Aaron helps Heinrich manage the horses through the thick muck of the road whilst Cressida watches the road cradling her newly acquired blunderbuss.

Marie and Saskia opt to ride in the "fresh" air on the roof of the coach - much to the other occupants' relief as does Eivor. That left Nynn and Rudiger to accompany the Kurtzmann sisters inside the Coach.

The day's journey was uneventful, the sisters provide some distracting conversation within the coach whilst the occupants of the roof entertained themselves. The coach turned onto the Middenheim/Altdorf road sometime in the mid morning and the coach pushed on to the Coach and Horses Inn, arriving before dusk.

The signs of bustle and activity reassure suspicious minds as the coach enters the gates of the inn and pauses under the archway.

the party de-buss into the bar whilst the coach is led around to the back of the Inn to allow the horses to be stabled. 

The warmth and noise of the Inn bar wash over the group, the inn keep is talking loudly to a rather drunk pair of men sat in chairs near the fire.  

A very well dressed gentleman casts an appraising eye over the group as they enter. He loses interest in them as they notice him and returns to nursing a large glass of wine whilst propping himself up against the bar.

A trio of women sit at a table: an obvious noblewoman picking disdainfully at her food, piercing green eyes briefly raising to the noise of the opening door before returning to the contents of her plate. A small, mousey girl in plain clothes sits sullenly to her right, her clothes shouting her station as servant next to the finery of her mistress. To the lady's left sits a broad shouldered muscular mountain of a woman, blue eyes staring icily at the party as they enter.

At the far end of the bar appears to be a large book propped up on a table, from behind which a hand occasionally reaches round to reach for a tankard. 

A tall, lanky barman frowns whilst cleaning glasses behind the bar, muttering to himself under his breath. His focus seems so absorbed in his task he pays no attention to the group of travellers at the threshold.

"wet beds! warm roads! Caaww!!" screeches across the laughter of the coach men as a crow hops along a shelf above the bar, bobbing its head and flapping its wings as it does so,

"Oo, shut yer 'ole Blackie! Don't you mind her sirs and madams, welcome to the Coach and 'Orses" The inn keep, having extricated himself from the coachman bustles over and greets the group. "the name's Gustav Fondleburger, I take it you ladies and gents will be wanting to stay the night?" Baggage is collected by young porters who appear from nowhere and the group are shown to a table with the promise of hot food and good drinks.

The Kurtzen sisters excuse themselves to "clear the dust from the day's travels" and make their way upstairs. 

Aaron takes a keen interest in the noble woman whilst the others nurse their drinks and discuss the events of the last couple of days. All agree that something strange is going on and that sticking together for the remainder of their journey to Altdorf would probably be a good idea.

the night is passed in general conversation and drinking. Aaron recognises the lady's family colours as belonging to the Von Strudeldorf family. the young woman is surprised enough at being recognised by such a common ruffian that she briefly lets her guard down and engages in conversation with him. much to the annoyance of her bodyguard.

the well dressed fop at the bar wanders of and introduces himself as Phillipe Descartes, a thick Brettonian accent colouring his otherwise excellent Reikspiel, to which Marie replies in fluent Bretonnian! A friendly game of Scarlet Empress ensues which leaves the purses of some of the party somewhat lighter!

Saskia is persuaded that the horse trough is not the place for a young lady to refresh herself and a copper of hot water is prepared in a bathing shed off the back of the kitchen. Saskia spends some time marvelling at the feeling of hot water before washing herself and all of her clothes - much to the relief of the group when they see her later.

Rudiger and Cressida strike up conversation with the two coachmen by the fire. Gunnar and Hultz are already several sheets to the breeze but are happy to accept more drinks for the chance to gossip and brag. Stories of with hunter burning villages, coaches going missing, increased bandit activity and the Emperor annexing Ubersreik paint a worrying picture of the Empire for both of them.

 the evening draws to a close and the bold adventurers retire for the first restful night of sleep in several days.

the following morning the Kurtzman sisters bid farewell over breakfast: Heinrich is taking them on to Middenheim after picking up a second coachman. Of Gunnar and Hultz there is no sign....

Aaron and cressida take it on themselves to ensure that the Altdorf coach is tacked up whilst Rudiger and Eivor chivvy the Coachmen to Breakfast and onto the coach.

It's very soon apparent that if they're going to get anywhere, Gunnar and Hultz will have to sleep it off whilst Aaron and Cressida take the reins.

The pattern is repeated for the next two days  until the morning of the third day sees the coach cresting a hill revealing the splendour of the heart of the Empire before it: Altdorf at last!

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.

Roaming through the Old World

 

As you've probably already figured out, we at the Regiment like to mix our gaming up a bit. For the last 9(!)ish years we've had a regular weekly RPG session going. We've played a wide range of games - From Infinty RPG to Iron Kingdoms, classic DnD, DnD 5e, Call of Cthulhu and so on. After just finishing an excellent 5e Curse of Strahd campaign run by McZermof, we've decided to return to one of my favourites: Warhammer fantasy roleplay.

This is a bit of a nostalgia trip for me, WFRP was the first RPG I ever played (nearly 30 years ago!! :oO ) and the first edition has always had a special place in my RPG repertoire. I'd run the first two chapters of the Enemy Within Campaign a few years ago for the Regiment guys and was keen to get back into it. However, with the passage of time, only 4 of that original party were still in the group and the other 3 had never played the campaign! With the re-release of the 4th edition by Cubicle 7 it seemed a great chance to re-boot the campaign and start with a blank slate.

As I said, I've always had a soft spot for first edition so moving to 4th was going to be a bit of big step. Thankfully Cubicle 7 have done a good job (IMHO) doing just enough of a refresh and tidy up to make a difference without losing the original flavour of a dark and gritty fantasy setting. I won't do a review of the rules, that's what google is for ;), but suffice to say one player's reservations about playing another "useless wizard's apprentice" were put to rest at the end of character creation. Who'd have thought the wizard's staff not only has a knob on the end but it hits like it's made of iron rammed through with 6" nails!

Anyway, This blog series is going to be a players view (as far as i see it anyway) diary of the campaign as we play through it. We're likely to take a bit of a hiatus between chapters to play other things (did we mention that we're a group of kleptomaniac magpies?) but we'll definitely work our way through this time. we're already one session in to the campaign so I'll kick off with a run through of the dramatis personae and a precis of the last session.

Nynn Tai (Scott) - A Cathayan envoy, refined, articulate, how she ended up in the backwaters of the Empire is a story she hasn't shared yet

Eivor Albrecht (Theren) - a furtive, outlaw Talabeclander on the run

Saskia (McZermof) - an Amber wizard's apprentice on the way to Altdorf to deliver a mysterious package

Aron Gilmour (Paul) - a clerk on a messenger run for his noble betters

Mari (Tank) - a scruffy, smelly, irritable hedge witch wanderer of the Empire

Rudiger Volksmaer (Mcbeth) - an alcoholic initiate of Sigmar, disillusioned with the ecclesiarchy travelling to Altdorf to see for himself the state of the church

Cressida (Chris) - an angry young engineer running to, or possibly from, something

We've stated a tradition of a session '0' in our group, a small side adventure to get everyone together before embarking on the main quest. I split the group in to three groups:

Eivor on his own, Marie and Saskia together and Rudiger, Nynn, Cressida and Aaron. The groups had started travelling together for mutual protection through the rural backwaters of Talabecland, just west of Delberen.

Marie and Saskia had been walking the roads together after the unwanted attention of a number of passing wagons. As the rain hammered down, soaking them to the skin, they caught the smell of roasting rabbit drifting from the trees.

Eivor had spent the day travelling through the Drakwald just back from the road, the comfort of invisibility from road travelers more than offset the risks of meeting whatever lurked in the woods. As the rain got heavier, he came across the bole of a tree that had fallen in a storm at some point in the past. sitting back against the root stock in the depressing it left in the earth gave him enough cover to risk a small fire to roast the rabbits he'd caught earlier in the day.

He looked up sharply at the sound of clanking pots and pans to see two faces peering at his fire longingly. inviting the two travelers to join him, the three of them settled down to relative comfort and a warm meal.

This was disturbed by the abrupt arrival of a huge beastman crashing through the fire! A brief struggle ensued where Saskia discovered that her apprentices staff was for more than leaning on! Through the shocked silence following the bloody slaying of the Beastman, the trio heard the sounds of movement all around them. the report of a firearm some distance off was answered with a braying call somewhere in the woods and a number of the creatures peeled off the main group and headed towards the road. Saskia, furious hatred at the perversion of nature that is the beastman race, took chase and was followed by the other two.

Meanwhile, Rudiger's group had hastily left an inn that evening after the Ulrican landlord and his friends thought the group were a soft target for some abuse and intimidation. As they neared the main Delberen road, Cressida heard the unmistakable sound of a firearm discharge! in the lightning flashes, the group saw a carriage stopped in the middle of the road ahead with huddled figures moving around it.

Moving closer through the gloom they realised that one of the shapes on the floor was a human. Aaron, sensing the change for a dry ride to the next inn raised his hands and called to the group. His cheery "hello good folks!" was answered with a cross bow bolt whistling past his ear! Two of the shadowy figures drew weapons and moved towards the group. A struggle ensued that saw Rudiger invoke the name of Sigmar to smite his foes, and boy were they smote, Cressida grappling with another figure as he brought a blunderbuss to bear. The struggle to aim the weapon resulted in a misfire into the carriage horses sending the vehicle lurching through the mud down the road. Meanwhile, Nynn and Aaron managed to handle the remaining assailants.

As the muddy melee drew to a close, a thunderous crash from the trees heralded the arrival of several beastmen and mutants! Battle was joined in earnest, with tentacles, horns and teeth being pitted against the best steel the Empire could offer. Eivor, Marie and Saskia arrived shortly afterwards to help turn the tide of the battle in the party's favour. 

At the end of the combat, with wounds being tended, their attention turned to the wagon and what remained of the horses. The creatures of chaos had managed to mutilate the horses so that the carriage was next to useless. inside were the corpses of 3 passengers, all showing signs of murder most foul! the original attackers were searched and found to be wearing old uniforms of the Ratchet lines coach line, though all had the tell tale signs of being stripped from corpses - blood stained rents where no wounds were apparent, the carriage itself was found to be in a state of disrepair no reputable line would countenance. the only answer - bandits posing as carriage crews had gathered some un-suspecting passengers at an inn and taken them to the middle of nowhere to rob them. In checking the bodies, Rudiger had a nasty shock when he realised that one of them was the spitting image of Cressida!

Cressida was able to pocket some documents from the body for perusal at a more private time and location. 

the group were now standing in the middle of the road in the pouring rain when Aaron remembered that the next inn was no more than half a mile down the road. the Hooded Man would be an ideal place to warm up, dry out and report the evening's events to the Road Wardens....

That was where we left session '0', this weekend I'll follow up with events at the Hooded Man then put together the goings on from tomorrow night's session.

Cheers all.

Christmas is hard on the hobby!

There hasn't been a whole lot of hobby time in the run up to Christmas (surprising no one) so I haven't been doing a whole lot of hobbying as a result! But I have knocked off a couple of little things.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
I've posted the WIP of this model previously but I finally got her finished.

Saskia Waldlaufer - Amber Wizard

Saskia Waldlaufer will be an Amber Wizard for our next weekly RPG campaign which is, I think, hopefully going to be WFRP 4th Edition. But before we get to that, we need to finish...

Dungeons and Dragons! 
A lot of my hobby time recently has been going into DMing our weekly RPG group through the re-written 5th Edition of Curse of Strahd campaign. We've been making a genuine effort to get more RPG-y with our RPGs and that includes me! It's going really well too, I think, and the players are all working super hard to inhabit their characters and make decisions that make sense for the character, not the player.

I am really enjoying DMing CoS for two reasons - firstly that it's open world, but is still constrained geographically which means there is a lot less prep I need to do to be ready for where the party might go, which in turn means I can be more prepped for the places they do go. Secondly, Strahd is great. The authors have laid out what his aims for the campaign are in the introduction and so I, as the DM, actually have my own PC. And he's awesome. So far I've creeped the party out in a serious way and also punched one of them across a graveyard to express just how scary he is!

There's a bunch of really good material online to help a DM with CoS along with an amazing playthrough on Youtube that has given me some great ideas and material. It's easily been the most fun I've had as a DM in ages!

Warhammer 40K
I did a little bit of work on a couple of my Deathwatch models too. I've been doing a bit of parts shenaniganery to get a second Primaris Kill Team built and these two models got a bit cannibalised while I did it - mostly to sort out things like Terminator scale shoulderpads for the Inceptors and Aggressors. Anyway, they've now been repaired and repainted so get to be posted here. One 2020 task complete! HA!

Raven Guard Primaris Hellblaster and Black Templars Terminator

Next Time
I will be doing a bit of a 2019 retrospective and previewing a project that bloggers Pooch, Scotty and Tank Engine, clubmate BB and I will be taking on in 2020. It's really, really dumb but it's going to be so SO MUCH fun.

November Workbench

It's been a pretty busy week, mostly prepping to start running a 5e DnD Curse of Strahd campaign for the lads. I'm really looking forward to it but I'm taking the opportunity to prep more seriously than I did for our last 5e campaign.

Strahd looks like a really interesting campaign as it's not a straight dungeon-crawl and allows for a nicely constrained open world. I really like the thread of a plot that runs through it that's generated by the DM before the campaign even starts as well. Our group is also trying to be more role-play-y which I am super excited for and definitely suits the campaign and the setting. One day, maybe, I hope to be able to run a 5e Dark Sun campaign but in the meantime, Ravenloft, my other favourite setting will have to do. And if this one goes well, which I hope it will, I'd really like the party to carry on with these characters. There's a charm to being able to do that.

I have been doing a little painting this week on the side although nothing all that serious. I've started on a Squat model I got from Victoria Miniatures as a bonus when I ordered my Permitted Abhumans. I've just got most of the basecoats and initial washes on at this stage but he's coming along nicely.

I've just realised that unless the new Inquisition list really adds something special for Acolytes, I should rebase him as the Squat Bounty Hunter for Necromunda. Probably should have thought of that earlier...

The other model I've been working on is for one of our RPG groups upcoming games in 2020 - blogger Pelarel has picked up Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 4e. We've played earlier editions a few times but 4e looks like it might really have kicked it up a notch in playability, which is cool.

The last round we played I was a Wood Elf Mage, a character that felt a little bit out of place in the pre-Age of Sigmar Warhammer Old World. I did enjoy the wizarding though so have decided to go a bit old school / a bit new school as part of trying to get more role-play-y.

This fabulous mini is from Hasslefree and will be played as an Amber Wizard. With that in mind, I've deliberately tried to limit myself to a palette of orange, red brown and yellow, with only the grey and bone as necessary colours outside that palette. The head is going to eventually be Leopard-print (!) and I've got some amazing reference photos for yellow feathers that I'll see if I can replicate.

The Amber Wizard should be a challenging character to play in a group RPG as they are generally loners and somewhat non-conformist. That should provide some opportunity for some interesting interactions and conflicts with the other players though and give me a really clear steer about what a character would do in a certain situation.

Next Time
It's club day again. Quite what that means is anyone's guess. I might try out my 55 point army for our end-of-year Flames of War competition or Pel and I will get in a game of Zone Raiders and I'll batrep that out carefully. With a bit of luck, I might have finished up these two models by then as well.