Friday, April 28, 2017

WFRP 2nd Edition - A job at the Eel Inn (Terror in Talabheim)

Hi All,

The next installment in our adventures.

***EDIT***
I was remiss in not attributing the write up to its rightful author, A. Dyer. Sorry about that, just laziness and forgetfulness on my part. He also wrote up the Dreams of Araby scenario. I can't recall if there has been another I've posted on the blog that was not written by me. I'll endeavor to do a better job of giving credit where it is due.

The group confronts the murder suspect and it's not long before his panic cries reveal his guilt to everyone! Looks like the group acquired some new gear. - J.Brisken
***/EDIT***

The party is sitting in 10 tailed cat, discussing how to handle the job search. Although a room is prepared, watches are taken, both for protection and to make sure everyone is up in time. And when the sun comes up, the party is ready to go. They get a quick breakfast before heading to the inn to meet the assessor at the Eel Inn. Along the way, there are lots of refugees heading in the same direction.

While walking, Vincent overhears some dockworkers talking about how the counsel in Talabheim want to remove the unskilled away from Talagaad. As the party is moving away, Vincent recognizes one final word, “plague.”Vincent shares this information with the party.

The Eel tavern is an unremarkable place other than ship parts on the wall, and there is already a small line extending out of the door. City guards are at the door and are letting people in slowly. While in line, several members of the party hear others whispering about the real reason why they want to remove people from Talagaad: there is a disease working its way through the shanty town. No one knows what it is but the symptoms include cough and shuttering. And many in the city blame the refugees.

After about 30 minutes, the party is finally let in to see the Assessor. He seems surprisingly old for someone in the old world. The Assessor has an impressive beard and a bit of a belly. The job is to deliver a group of refugees to the village of Breitblatt. It should take about 3 days there and 3 days back.

Sally asks if it would be quicker to go through the crater. The Assessor points out that there is only a single entrance to Talabheim so there would be no way out. The Assessor offers 2gc each now 8 gc more upon return. At this point, Vincent asks if the Assessor could expedite the party’s entrance to Talabheim upon completion. The Assessor says he can do that if we work quickly.

Vincent then asks if Yohann can help as well and reminded that it would be illegal to consider anyone for a job that is not present. As the Assessor goes to hand the party their money, he quickly pulls his hand back and reminds the party that if they swindle him, they will be skinned alive. The Assessor then hands the money over and tells the party they leave at dawn in 2 days.

In order to escape the risk of plague and to save some coin, the party decides to camp out in the forest just outside of Talagaad.

As the morning comes, the party heads to the Eel Inn and sees about 100 refugees including more than a dozen children and several carts full of furniture and other personal supplies. Although the Assessor did not say the size of the group of refugees, the size of the group is larger than expected. Additionally, a group of soldiers are present and controlling the situation. A man approaches saying he is a servant of the Assessor and hands Lukas a small package. Inside the package is a map and a letter stating that the holder of the letter are employees of the city and no one should interfere. Immediately after the servant leaves, a soldier walks up and informs Lukas that these are the refugees to be transferred to Breitblatt. He suggests the party keep to the north side of the old Dwarf Road because Orcs have been spotted near the village of Waldfardt.

Then the sergeant ushers the party towards the crowd. Vincent makes a speech about the journey and the importance of keeping on guard while we travel.

The party begins the journey with the refugees. The first day of the journey is rather unremarkable. The party notices several older people and children coughing really hard and that all the people coughing are Talabeclanders.

Leopold strikes up a conversation with a young man names Reinhart who turns out to be a blacksmith. He seems to be looking toward being moved into Breitblatt since they do not have a blacksmith. Reinhart is very friendly and in very good humor. Leopold asks if he is from Talabecland, but he is not. He however, points out many who are.

After the first day, the everyone makes camp. Vincent orders everyone to keep small fires and stay inside the carts. Leopold asks Reinhart to help with the watch and Vincent talks to the Kislevites, using the elven amulet and several of them agree and are surprised he can speak their language. Vincent sets up a small trap and catches a bird overnight. Nothing else of note happens during the night.

The next morning the sky is overcast and there is a chill in the air. The group gets the refugees packed for the night and heads along the road. As the refugees are traveling, three figures begin approaching down the road. And they are huge. It turns out that they are very colorfully dressed ogres. One is wearing a hat so large, several people could stand under it. And all have giant weapons larger than a man. The refugees are terrified with children crying and people generally wailing in fear.

The ogres begin talking to each other before one approaches the group. The ground shakes as the ogre approaches. When he arrives, the ogre tips his hat and bows slightly. He speaks with a very deep voice and asks if we fancy sharing a meal with them. Lukas asks what kind of meal. The ogre introduces himself as Thurgredd Heart-Wrencher and asks for several children to eat. Lukas tries to explain that several people in the party have the plague but Thurgredd doesn’t care. Then Lukas and Vincent show him the paper indicating the status of the group. This allows Vincent to convince him to not eat the children. However, the ogre demands a mule to eat, which the party gladly gives him.

After seeing this, the refuges are very grateful and many have admiration in their eyes. They are amazed that they were saved from the ogres. After this, nothing else of note happens during the day.

Upon making camp for the night, Vincent gives the bird he caught that morning to the parents to one of the coughing children. Again, the refugees are ordered to keep small fires and stay inside the wagon circle.

Early the next morning, the party is woken to screaming and shouting. A group of farmers are gathered around a tent and covered in blood. Between the rips in the fabric, the bodies of a family can be seen and they have been torn apart, as if by wild beasts.

Vincent and Lukas investigate and see wolf tracks heading south. However, Vincent notices that these tracks are a little too well imprinted, indicating that they are false prints. Sally and Leopold find a purse with 23 pennies and 20 shillings and a separate small, silver pendant of a twin tailed comet. In the tent, Lukas notices that there are no missing body parts, which is inconsistent with an animal attack. After asking the crowd, it is determined that his name was Klaus and he was a hunter. But the names of his wife and daughter are not known. Lukas and Sally notice that there are no hunting equipment in the tent, either. Leopold points out that he might not have actually been a hunter. Just in case, Sally looks for thief signs and finds nothing. Vincent talks with someone and finds out that Klaus had a very nice bow that he was bragging about. The party decides to announce that it was a wolf attack in hopes that someone might let their guard down.

Everyone travels fine for the day, but stops early. As the refugees make camp, an old woman calls Sally and brings him to a fire where a family has a small boy who is clearly very sick and has marks on his chest. Sally attempts to get the family to let him get help, but they refuse.

Meanwhile, Lukas and Vincent gets a group of men to go hunting, although none of the men show up with a fancy bow. During this time, Leopold and Sally begin investigating, using the ruse of checking for taxable products. Leopold finds the bow while searching a tent and asks the neighbors. The tent belongs to Regimius Janicke, a hunter from Talabecland. The neighbors say he is an odd man who seems to hate all non-Talabeclanders.

The hunting party returns with plenty of game. Leopold and Sally have Regimius identified. After gathering the rest of the party, they follow Regimius back to his tent. He enters, but shortly after comes out and is acting very nervous. As if this is the signal, the party jumps him. Regimius goes crazy and essentially admits to the crime and is tied up and his hatred of non-Talabeclanders. However, the crowd seems unruly. Vincent is able to calm the crowd with his oratory skills.

If Jason comes up with any art I'll update the post.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Paint Table Saturday 181 - Pretty little maids

Hi All,

Still all over the place, but I'll show you the most recent thing.


Taken with the new phone on "pro" settings. I played with the aperture and ISO to get better exposure on the figures. In auto it was compensating for the pure white elements in the shot and darkening things down too much. You can see the white bottles in the back are blowing out.

***EDIT*** These figures are from the Eureka (100WFR905) Milkmaid Set. I can only ever find it by typing it in the search bar. ***/EDIT***

I used Reaper Rosy Skin and Rosy Shadow on these with a little drying retarder mixed in. The hope was to wet blend. My paint still dried pretty rapidly and I couldn't blend. I may have put the paint on too thin or not enough retarder.

I sanded the wooden knights and glued them to their bases.

We have another WFRP session tomorrow and I just found out I have another Rally Round the King battle to fight out for the Talomir Tales blog.

I also went ahead and preordered Shadow War:Armageddon. I didn't think it was fair to let Dai have to carry the load of knowing all the rules for our game.

Well, I had better get on it.

Later.

Friday, April 21, 2017

WFRP 2nd Ed - Shopping in Talagaad

Hi All,

Busy jumping around from topic to topic, what else is new? I've failed to finish my research into basing and have been messing around with world and language building software. More on that later, much later.

Two weeks ago we had a WFRP session scheduled, but Andrew and I couldn't make it so Jason and Bryan boldly ventured forth to get the lay of the land and try and convert some of their cash into useful items.

We'll start with a scene from Dreams of Araby, where the group figures out who can play which instrument.


Shopping in Talagaad

It was a warm early Autumn day, Vincent was half asleep on the roof of the coach as the rest of the party dozed in and out of slumber inside. The effects of the black lotus seem to be slowly fading away. The coach started to slow to a trot and a familiar knock came from the front. “We have arrived.” Alysia called from the front of the coach. Sally hopped out of the coach to get a look at the surroundings.

The sight was depressing. Not a half kilometer away sat the over populated slums of Talagaad. The breeze carried a foul stench of squalor. “I turn around here.” Alysia said again as she dismounted and started with unloading the baggage. “You should change your clothing. Looking as you do might not be a good thing, no. I have change of clothing for you all.”

Lukas and Leopold dismounted and began gathered there gear as Vincent handed down what was on the roof of the coach before climbing down himself. “So where are we meeting this contact.” Vincent said to no one in particular.

“He will find you.” Alysia replied. Everyone changed over to common empire clothing and the party made their way towards Talagaad. The impressive sight of the Talabheim wall and fortress atop the mighty crater was somewhat lessened by the mood of the town outside. Refugees from Kislev and what we would soon find out to be Hockland filled the streets. We made our way through the crowd nearing the center.

“I need to exchange some of these crowns for something a bit more useful.” Vincent said. “Perhaps we should ask for directions to a merchant.” Up until this time there was little in the way of markets that one would expect from a town this side. Just rows of hovels and shady buildings. The flow of people lead the party to a toll bridge. It seemed to be the only bridge that crossed the river that split Talagaad in two. The crowd was not particularly helpful when it came to asking for directions. Failing to get information the first time Vincent tried a different approach and confronted a man who did not have enough coin to cross the bridge. “Excuse me sir. Are you familiar with the other side of the river? We aren’t from around here and it seems we might be able to help each other out.”

The man’s name was Johan Stilts’ish (I’m not good at spelling or remembering names…) and he was indeed familiar with Talagaad and seemed a talkative and respectable man. Through some idle conversation and his willingness to share what he knew, the party mutually agreed to hire Johan as a guide. In return we will cover Johan’s tolls as well as a significant bonus after we concluded our day’s business.

The bridge was guarded by men tailored in red and white uniforms representing the colors of Talabheim. They were armored as one would expect a guardsman would be and they were decently armed with spear in hand and an axe at their hip. “Halt.” Cried the guard. “The toll for crossing the bridge will be 10 pence a person.” The party would soon find out that unique variables to ‘person’ that effected the price. In short… Halflings, being short as they are, only paid 5 pence. and “cripples” as the guard address Genaro must pay 15 pence to cross the bridge. This seems to have been the party’s first taste of Talabheim long list of laws.

Once crossed the river all eyes were on a large wall littered with papers and request for possible work. Every so often a crier would be calling out what was written on the papers. Work was scarce in Talagaad as so there was a large crowd surrounding the wall. One boisterous reader cried out that there was to be lucrative work coming tomorrow and that all interested members should meet at the Eel Tavern early tomorrow morning. Johan seemed interested in the job as well as Sally. Perhaps this would be that party’s way into Talabheim?

As Johan explained getting into Talabheim is an expensive and time consuming effort. Waiting lists and customs and yadda-yadda making it likely that the process could take a couple days before one begins there journey up the “Wizards Way”, the path that leads up the crater wall, if they are even allowed to.

The grouped made their way to the market district. Fortunately there was a large selections of shops. We were lucky according to Johan for apparently the market district opens its doors only a few days a week. Whether this is a the law of the land or just a circumstance to the impoverished state of Talagaad was never found out. The group went forth and made their trades. Vincent notably spent nearly all his coin on some maile completing his set as well as smaller items. The prices seemed rather fair for the most part.


The sun was setting and the shadows were getting long. “I must be getting back now,” Johan said after our time at the market. “Perhaps we see each other tomorrow at the Eel Tavern?” Sally gave Johan a generous wage for his time leading the party through Talagaad before making there to the 10 Tailed Cats Inn. The Inn was welcoming and had an interesting feature where if a storyteller was entertaining enough they would earn a free drink. There was a single patron that attempted this but the story of self pity did not seem to go over well enough for a free drink. After an evening the group turned in to get an early start so that they could be at the Eel Inn before the job is presented.



So it looks like we're in good shape for starting the adventure this weekend. The picture above blew me away. I'm really glad Jason is doing these.

Thanks for looking.

***Edit***
Of course I forgot to mention followers. Every time, geez!

Phil Otep reminded me of his blog Philotep's 1/72 Minis Kingdom. He also pointed me to Sprinks' blog Wronghammer, love the name and my original intention was to play Oldhammer in 1/72. I told myself I would never buy another 28mm figure. Whoops. Lastly welcome to Ryder Strickland of Belched from the Depths. Dude is an awesome painter and you should follow his blog!

Ok, now I'm done. For real.


Tuesday, April 18, 2017

New Phone Camera - Same old models

Hi All,

What with track season coming to a head and allergy/ yard work season in full effect here, I've been limping along on projects.

The main news is I got a new(ish) cellphone with a much better camera than my last. I opted for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active. I went to the store to compare the LG G6 and Galaxy S8 but decided that there were features on both that I didn't quite need or care for so I went with the older, and soon to be discontinued model. Since two years is an eternity in cellphone time this "older" new phone is a vast improvement on my last.

On to the pics. I have not edited these at all.


The table is a jumble of projects.


Sir Chicken. I didn't get the sides perfectly matched up and made the mistake of allowing the glue overage to fully harden. I got it mostly off by carving out with an X-acto knife. I'll hit it some sand paper to clean it up more. You can get these from Skull and Crown.

Here's the coat of arms I had forgotten that I made. I used Inkwell Ideas Coat of Arms Generator. (I should have cropped the exported file.)


Here is Sir Squires. Lazy internet searching says the Squires coat of arms is a squirrel.


The goat on the helm is a nod to my mom. She has goats.


I've been digging through my figures and located my Curt geld from last year. Not pictured are the gretchin I owe Dave B. One of these days I'll get these finished.


Since I had Friday off I went and collected Dormur from the game store. The guy, same one who was rude when I dropped him off, said they hadn't judged the figures yet. I said I was no longer interested in competing. So my foray into trying to be involved in a local game store has ended in failure. That's ok, I like playing with my Oldhammer bros better anyway.


Lastly, I pulled out my Bretonnians so I could do a deal with Blue for some retainers (pictured) and foot knights (not pictured). I need to find three more bowmen to make a unit of ten. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy some from Foundry or somewhere else.

I'm doing some research into bases as I've run out of 20mm slotted bases. I have an eBay supplier from Hong Kong. I'll share my findings with you in a future post.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Paint Table Saturday 179 - Arrgh!

Hi All,

Not much going on with the hobby, I've been busy with family activities and Taxes. Finally got those done. I haven't done any in many years so I'm glad to see the back of them.

Here's the state of the Paint Desk:


A lot of projects. I started going through my lead pile to look for large creatures for Zerotwentythree's Big April. The most obvious example is the box of Golgfag's Mercenary Ogres, but I also have various giant and trolls, including Drew Williams bog trolls.

I also started looking for my Bretonnian's and found a few, along with some High Elves. The Goblins are some that I'm trying to trade with another Oldhammerer and then I had out my Boar Boyz, and the Chaos Centaurs are still out, one of the double archers may be involved in the same trade.

So there you have it. Thanks for looking.