Well, so far things not going exactly to plan. Whatever it is that is hurting my back will not go away. I need to figure out some way to return to being active but the constant pain is making it difficult.
So far I haven't had much success in moving forward with the plan. I'll try to rectify that this week. The magazine is moving forward, though probably at too slow a pace. If you're on the Oldhammer in the New World Facebook group, I'll be pestering you more soon. I do have some cool stuff to share but I want to include as many people as possible.
On Sunday I played in a marathon session of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Ed. It was quite fun but I had to miss my son's track practice to finish it up. It was very tense, with a feeling of impending doom as we frantically searched for away to first get out and heal up, and second find anything that would help us defeat the horrifying monsters in the house.
I'm still working on how to play my character and not myself. I passed on a couple of opportunities that my character definitely would have/ should have seized upon.
There were only two of us, out of five, left standing at the end and fate points were necessary to achieve that.
It looks like we are about to embark upon a campaign but it is a mystery for now. I am trying to decide where best to go for the sake of the party. I'm on the Thief track right now, but one of the other guys is too. I'm toying with the idea of Tomb Robber so that I can get to Vampire Hunter and Witch Hunter. It would fit in with my backstory to some degree and with the horrible Beastmen and Chaos mutants I encountered in the last adventure.
Here's a picture of my character, Leopold, drawn by one of the other players.
So I'll set the scene. Our party consists of Slavatore "Sally" the Halfling and his bodyguard Genaro from Tilea, Lukas from Talabecland, Vincent and Leopold from Wissenland. We have been tasked with finding and removing relics from an abandoned wizard's house by the Witch Hunter Nihilus.
The gang minus Lukas has gone through most of the first floor and are pretty badly beat up with Sally in danger of losing his right hand.
We begin this session where we left off, in room 11 with Sally gravely injured. As we try to figure out what to do there is a knocking at the door, it's Lukas. We don't trust him at first but finally open the door.
We discuss our options and decide we should try to leave after searching the room. We spend 40 minutes doing so. The Library is mostly filled with old, boring books that are about 170 years old. Sally and Vincent, being the only ones who can read, find three of interest. #1 a report on the Heretical sect "Slithering Darkness" from 2228, Ubersreich, Hans Friedrich Inghearst. #2 "Poisoned Claw" sect that worships Skaven and it's travels from Skavenblight, N. Tilea, Black Mountains to Empire. Tavelli Family in league with Skaven. #3 Story of the Gesbenst family, spanning 100 years from the late 2100's. Powerful family of Witch Hunters.
We continue to discuss taking the suit of Armor in the room, it is too large and bulky to wear. Many of us start to be overcome with a feeling of dread. Vincent decides to take the helmet (40 encumbrance).
We exit the room and pass by the Black Wooden, Iron bound doors to the upstairs. We decide to try to leave and head back to room 2, it is very cold. We go into room one and find the trap door closed and unopenable. Lukas says he left it open and begins to chop it with his hatchet, we can see the wood repair itself. The lanterns seem to dim in this room.
We give up and head back to room 3. The room is dirty with a large mahogany table with a large silver platter on it. We agree it is valuable but decide to grab it on the way out. Leopold picks the lock on the door to room 4. Inside is a skeleton with a blue flame in its eyes, a candle magically lights. Sally and Genaro shit themselves in fear, we all are affected by the stench. The skeleton magically chokes Lukas. Leopold shouts and strikes the skeleton in the head, Lukas attacks it with his hatchet. The skeleton hits Lukas in the side of the face, he narrowly escapes losing an eye. While every one else cowers in fear or is ineffectual in combat, Lukas shatters the skeleton with his hatchet. The candle goes out and the choke hold on Lukas disappears. A cursory search reveals nothing of interest in the room.
Sally and Genaro are scared and ashamed and want to leave. The group heads to the front door (between 8 and 9) and finds it magically held shut as well. Giving in to their fate the party returns to the double doors (12). The bone key from room 9 begins to vibrate in Vincent's pouch. He hands it to Leo, who uses it to open the door, after using a luck point to check for traps. A fog comes rolling down the stairs as we go up. It is waist high and feels like thick water. At the top of the stairs is a large hourglass filed with sand. It is at the 11th our and each tick there is a moan. Leopold wants to smash it, but Lukas says he will try to stop him. We open the door at the top and head West to room 13.
This room has different colors painted on the walls, 3 pentagrams on the floor and various runes and symbols written haphazardly about. There appears to be nothing else of interest. The party rushes out and to room 14.
14 is a luxurious bedroom. Inside the ghost of a sad, dour man sits at the foot of the bed. Genaro, Sally and Leopold are dumbstruck with fear. Lukas and Vincent carry on a conversation with the ghost. Berhard Seibert is a former servant of the Wizard Ludovicus Hamicae. He says "Oh, so you came. More guests, more lost souls." He says the gods have no power in the house. He tells the party that a ritual has gone wrong and he woke up dead. The ghost says he needs to travel to the attic, but was forbidden. The master was interested in Chaos cults and had many guests/experiments over the years. Berhard says he feels weaker every day and forgets what he was supposed to do. Vincent asks about items (relics?). Berhard says the master had a big collection, item (?) will be with master in the attic. He says there was also a supply room. Vincent asks about some more items to defeat monsters and Berhard says no, the master was mostly interested in books, but there was a trophy room. The ghost then begins to disappear. Vincent lays his black rose of Morr on the spot, it seems to disintegrate before our eyes. Does Morr hold no power in this place?
Truly on edge now, the party decides to back track to the East and search the trophy room for something to help us with what might be up in the attic. Leopold eyes the hour glass as they pass, his hand holding the club twitching. There are very few grains left, time is of the essence.
We open the double doors to room 17, it is filled with taxidermy and weapons of all kinds. We fan out to search the room and Genaro is startled by the stuffed bear coming to life and attacking. Sally shoots it with his pistol. The shot blows half its head off and ignites its fur. Lukas tries to hit the bear but can't and Leopold fumbles for his sling because the space is too cramped for him to get in. Vincent dispatches the bear with his spear. An animated suit of armor bursts forth from the door to the North and attacks. Genaro tries to flank it on the right. Vincent shouts to try to draw the things attention. Genaro deflects a mighty sword blow with his buckler, while Lukas rushes from the other side and misses with his attack. The armor is now sandwiched between two animal displays, Genaro and Lukas. Leopold loads his sling, but is too fearful of hitting his friends to shoot. Vincent's spear just grazes off the armor. Genaro takes a wild swing, leaving himself open for an attack (doubles). Lukas somehow evades a killing blow from the armor (Fate point) in a matrix like move, his follow up attack is blocked by the armor. Leopold proves useless with the sling. Vincent then dents and staggers the armor with a mighty blow. This gives Genaro the opportunity to deliver a mighty blow of his own to the armor's back. In retaliation the armor swings his sword at Genaro, who cannot avoid the cruel slashing cut. Genaro loses his foot and falls to the floor in shock. Sally, who hd been furiously attempting a one hand reload of his pistol, drops it and runs to lie on his friend to shield him from more attacks. Lukas shouts "tourniquet" and rains blows upon the armor which appear to have no effect. Leopold drops his sling, pulls out his club, and tries to position himself between the armor and his fallen comrades, Genaro and Sally. Vincent tears open the armor with another mighty thrust. Our suspicions are confirmed, there is no one inside. The armor takes a wild swing at Leopold and destroys the animal displays. Sally is unable to stop Genaro's bleeding or drag him away from the combat. In a frenzy, the party throws caution to the wind and begins to all out attack the armor with no regard for their own safety. Lukas finally delivers the killing blow, rending the armor from shoulder to hip with his hatchet, it falls apart to the floor. Lukas then uses his survival skills to stabilize Genaro and Vincent prays to Morr.
Leopold runs in to the room to the North, in an effort to find something useful. A stone statue of a halfling holding a jeweled dagger catches his eye. He cannot read the inscription, but takes the dagger and puts it in his belt. He tells the party about the statue and Sally reads the inscription. "Georgie Fatbelly, a faithful servant."
The party makes haste to room 21, which Berhard had told us leads to the attic. Leopold eyes the hourglass as he helps Lukas carry Genaro. Vincent assists Sally. We leave Sally and Genaro at the door as we enter.
The room is dark, with lacquered walls and a large magic circle drawn at the double doors to the East. Two mutants, Scaly 3 Eyes and Furry-Tentacle-Snout, are guarding the doors. They rush to attack. Leopold charges in to meet Scaly 3 Eyes and misses him. Lukas comes in to assist him and nearly drops his hatchet in his haste. Vincent charge to attack Furry-Tentacle-Snout and skewers him with one blow. The mutant collapses, dead, to the floor. Leopold and the remaining mutant miss each other and Vincent draws first blood on Scaly 3 Eyes. Vincent parries the creatures blow. Lukas over extends himself (rolled a 99) and Leopold tries to compose himself with a parrying stance. Scaly 3 Eyes seizes his opportunity and crushes Lukas's leg and pelvis with an all out attack, he crumples to the floor in agony. Sally rushes in to try and save Lukas. Leopold, in a red mist at the horrific wounding of his friend, smashes the mutants skull to jelly with a flurry of blows. Lukas successfully avoids a fatal infection from his wounds.
After much deliberation Leopold takes Sally's pistol and gives Lukas his lantern and sling. Lukas and Genaro are dragged into room 22. Vincent and Leopold ascend the spiral staircase leaving Lukas, Sally and Genaro behind. There is a feeling of dread as we climb. It is freezing cold and we can see our breath. There is no sound, but at the top we can hear a laugh which freezes our blood.
The doors at the top open easily. Our lantern blows out (did we have one?), but torches magically light the room. We ignore the black robes and golden bowls, but Vincent takes the vial of strange pink liquid.
A ghost materializes in front of the door to 24. We believe it to be the ghost of Ludovicus. He speaks but we can hear no sound. As he speaks more he becomes clearer to understand. A wind starts to blow and turns over the furniture, the ghost is encased in ice as the temperature drops below zero. The ghost wheezes "The last who came here, it was I who brought it. You must kill it or die." He then begins to rapidly age before our eyes, saying "I have swam outside time into the raw matter of Chaos. The thing is keeping me here. The Horror has me in its grasp." Maggots then begin to spill out of his wounds. "I am firmly in the grasp of its claws. He will grab you and squeeze you dry." A huge black claw with frost on it's talons appears and crushes the ghost in its grasp. It sounds like crumpling paper.
The door to 24 slams open and another gust of wind blows Vincent and Leopold inside the room. Gigantic portraits line the walls of this long room. At the opposite end is an unspeakable horror. It is a bloated grey-green mass with bluish veins. In the middle is a terrible, acid dripping, beak. The bottom half of the creature resembles a mass of intestines, in which can be seen many faces. Some are recognizable. It's eyes protrude from toothless mouths atop furred stalks. Two long tentacles stretch out to grasp our adventures, who can feel the malice and hatred and the creatures strong desire to squeeze out our souls. Vincent and Leopold are frozen with fear. The beast lashes out at Vincent and rends him with claws and tentacles. Vincent is first to regain his composure and is able to wound the creature but is engulfed in a gout of flaming acid from the wound. He quickly stops, drops, and rolls to extinguish his flaming clothes and armor. (The characters are using fate points to stay alive at this point.) A titanic struggle ensues. Vincent is a whirling cyclone of death, dodging parrying and striking back with deadly effect. Leopold finally snaps out of his fugue and fires off the pistol, just barely missing. His club has more effect as he strikes the foul beast. Vincent then lines up the killing blow and spears the creature deep inside its horrid beak. It erupts in gouts of flame and acid.
The room is quickly engulfed in flame. There is no time to think of loot or even injured comrades, there is only time for one thought. "Run!" As the room begins to burn down around them Vincent notices out of the corner of his eye that the portraits are alive.The nearest one looks like the street where Nihilus is waiting for them. Without a second thought Vincent and Leopold jump through the painting. The bright sunlight dazzles their eyes as they are lifted up by the strong hands of Nihilus. The house is completely gone. Our heroes have prevailed, but at what cost?
We exit the room and pass by the Black Wooden, Iron bound doors to the upstairs. We decide to try to leave and head back to room 2, it is very cold. We go into room one and find the trap door closed and unopenable. Lukas says he left it open and begins to chop it with his hatchet, we can see the wood repair itself. The lanterns seem to dim in this room.
We give up and head back to room 3. The room is dirty with a large mahogany table with a large silver platter on it. We agree it is valuable but decide to grab it on the way out. Leopold picks the lock on the door to room 4. Inside is a skeleton with a blue flame in its eyes, a candle magically lights. Sally and Genaro shit themselves in fear, we all are affected by the stench. The skeleton magically chokes Lukas. Leopold shouts and strikes the skeleton in the head, Lukas attacks it with his hatchet. The skeleton hits Lukas in the side of the face, he narrowly escapes losing an eye. While every one else cowers in fear or is ineffectual in combat, Lukas shatters the skeleton with his hatchet. The candle goes out and the choke hold on Lukas disappears. A cursory search reveals nothing of interest in the room.
Sally and Genaro are scared and ashamed and want to leave. The group heads to the front door (between 8 and 9) and finds it magically held shut as well. Giving in to their fate the party returns to the double doors (12). The bone key from room 9 begins to vibrate in Vincent's pouch. He hands it to Leo, who uses it to open the door, after using a luck point to check for traps. A fog comes rolling down the stairs as we go up. It is waist high and feels like thick water. At the top of the stairs is a large hourglass filed with sand. It is at the 11th our and each tick there is a moan. Leopold wants to smash it, but Lukas says he will try to stop him. We open the door at the top and head West to room 13.
This room has different colors painted on the walls, 3 pentagrams on the floor and various runes and symbols written haphazardly about. There appears to be nothing else of interest. The party rushes out and to room 14.
14 is a luxurious bedroom. Inside the ghost of a sad, dour man sits at the foot of the bed. Genaro, Sally and Leopold are dumbstruck with fear. Lukas and Vincent carry on a conversation with the ghost. Berhard Seibert is a former servant of the Wizard Ludovicus Hamicae. He says "Oh, so you came. More guests, more lost souls." He says the gods have no power in the house. He tells the party that a ritual has gone wrong and he woke up dead. The ghost says he needs to travel to the attic, but was forbidden. The master was interested in Chaos cults and had many guests/experiments over the years. Berhard says he feels weaker every day and forgets what he was supposed to do. Vincent asks about items (relics?). Berhard says the master had a big collection, item (?) will be with master in the attic. He says there was also a supply room. Vincent asks about some more items to defeat monsters and Berhard says no, the master was mostly interested in books, but there was a trophy room. The ghost then begins to disappear. Vincent lays his black rose of Morr on the spot, it seems to disintegrate before our eyes. Does Morr hold no power in this place?
Truly on edge now, the party decides to back track to the East and search the trophy room for something to help us with what might be up in the attic. Leopold eyes the hour glass as they pass, his hand holding the club twitching. There are very few grains left, time is of the essence.
We open the double doors to room 17, it is filled with taxidermy and weapons of all kinds. We fan out to search the room and Genaro is startled by the stuffed bear coming to life and attacking. Sally shoots it with his pistol. The shot blows half its head off and ignites its fur. Lukas tries to hit the bear but can't and Leopold fumbles for his sling because the space is too cramped for him to get in. Vincent dispatches the bear with his spear. An animated suit of armor bursts forth from the door to the North and attacks. Genaro tries to flank it on the right. Vincent shouts to try to draw the things attention. Genaro deflects a mighty sword blow with his buckler, while Lukas rushes from the other side and misses with his attack. The armor is now sandwiched between two animal displays, Genaro and Lukas. Leopold loads his sling, but is too fearful of hitting his friends to shoot. Vincent's spear just grazes off the armor. Genaro takes a wild swing, leaving himself open for an attack (doubles). Lukas somehow evades a killing blow from the armor (Fate point) in a matrix like move, his follow up attack is blocked by the armor. Leopold proves useless with the sling. Vincent then dents and staggers the armor with a mighty blow. This gives Genaro the opportunity to deliver a mighty blow of his own to the armor's back. In retaliation the armor swings his sword at Genaro, who cannot avoid the cruel slashing cut. Genaro loses his foot and falls to the floor in shock. Sally, who hd been furiously attempting a one hand reload of his pistol, drops it and runs to lie on his friend to shield him from more attacks. Lukas shouts "tourniquet" and rains blows upon the armor which appear to have no effect. Leopold drops his sling, pulls out his club, and tries to position himself between the armor and his fallen comrades, Genaro and Sally. Vincent tears open the armor with another mighty thrust. Our suspicions are confirmed, there is no one inside. The armor takes a wild swing at Leopold and destroys the animal displays. Sally is unable to stop Genaro's bleeding or drag him away from the combat. In a frenzy, the party throws caution to the wind and begins to all out attack the armor with no regard for their own safety. Lukas finally delivers the killing blow, rending the armor from shoulder to hip with his hatchet, it falls apart to the floor. Lukas then uses his survival skills to stabilize Genaro and Vincent prays to Morr.
Leopold runs in to the room to the North, in an effort to find something useful. A stone statue of a halfling holding a jeweled dagger catches his eye. He cannot read the inscription, but takes the dagger and puts it in his belt. He tells the party about the statue and Sally reads the inscription. "Georgie Fatbelly, a faithful servant."
The party makes haste to room 21, which Berhard had told us leads to the attic. Leopold eyes the hourglass as he helps Lukas carry Genaro. Vincent assists Sally. We leave Sally and Genaro at the door as we enter.
The room is dark, with lacquered walls and a large magic circle drawn at the double doors to the East. Two mutants, Scaly 3 Eyes and Furry-Tentacle-Snout, are guarding the doors. They rush to attack. Leopold charges in to meet Scaly 3 Eyes and misses him. Lukas comes in to assist him and nearly drops his hatchet in his haste. Vincent charge to attack Furry-Tentacle-Snout and skewers him with one blow. The mutant collapses, dead, to the floor. Leopold and the remaining mutant miss each other and Vincent draws first blood on Scaly 3 Eyes. Vincent parries the creatures blow. Lukas over extends himself (rolled a 99) and Leopold tries to compose himself with a parrying stance. Scaly 3 Eyes seizes his opportunity and crushes Lukas's leg and pelvis with an all out attack, he crumples to the floor in agony. Sally rushes in to try and save Lukas. Leopold, in a red mist at the horrific wounding of his friend, smashes the mutants skull to jelly with a flurry of blows. Lukas successfully avoids a fatal infection from his wounds.
After much deliberation Leopold takes Sally's pistol and gives Lukas his lantern and sling. Lukas and Genaro are dragged into room 22. Vincent and Leopold ascend the spiral staircase leaving Lukas, Sally and Genaro behind. There is a feeling of dread as we climb. It is freezing cold and we can see our breath. There is no sound, but at the top we can hear a laugh which freezes our blood.
The doors at the top open easily. Our lantern blows out (did we have one?), but torches magically light the room. We ignore the black robes and golden bowls, but Vincent takes the vial of strange pink liquid.
A ghost materializes in front of the door to 24. We believe it to be the ghost of Ludovicus. He speaks but we can hear no sound. As he speaks more he becomes clearer to understand. A wind starts to blow and turns over the furniture, the ghost is encased in ice as the temperature drops below zero. The ghost wheezes "The last who came here, it was I who brought it. You must kill it or die." He then begins to rapidly age before our eyes, saying "I have swam outside time into the raw matter of Chaos. The thing is keeping me here. The Horror has me in its grasp." Maggots then begin to spill out of his wounds. "I am firmly in the grasp of its claws. He will grab you and squeeze you dry." A huge black claw with frost on it's talons appears and crushes the ghost in its grasp. It sounds like crumpling paper.
The door to 24 slams open and another gust of wind blows Vincent and Leopold inside the room. Gigantic portraits line the walls of this long room. At the opposite end is an unspeakable horror. It is a bloated grey-green mass with bluish veins. In the middle is a terrible, acid dripping, beak. The bottom half of the creature resembles a mass of intestines, in which can be seen many faces. Some are recognizable. It's eyes protrude from toothless mouths atop furred stalks. Two long tentacles stretch out to grasp our adventures, who can feel the malice and hatred and the creatures strong desire to squeeze out our souls. Vincent and Leopold are frozen with fear. The beast lashes out at Vincent and rends him with claws and tentacles. Vincent is first to regain his composure and is able to wound the creature but is engulfed in a gout of flaming acid from the wound. He quickly stops, drops, and rolls to extinguish his flaming clothes and armor. (The characters are using fate points to stay alive at this point.) A titanic struggle ensues. Vincent is a whirling cyclone of death, dodging parrying and striking back with deadly effect. Leopold finally snaps out of his fugue and fires off the pistol, just barely missing. His club has more effect as he strikes the foul beast. Vincent then lines up the killing blow and spears the creature deep inside its horrid beak. It erupts in gouts of flame and acid.
The room is quickly engulfed in flame. There is no time to think of loot or even injured comrades, there is only time for one thought. "Run!" As the room begins to burn down around them Vincent notices out of the corner of his eye that the portraits are alive.The nearest one looks like the street where Nihilus is waiting for them. Without a second thought Vincent and Leopold jump through the painting. The bright sunlight dazzles their eyes as they are lifted up by the strong hands of Nihilus. The house is completely gone. Our heroes have prevailed, but at what cost?
So there you have it. We are going to leave Nuln and embark on a mystery campaign next. Leopold will be sad to leave Nuln, but excited by chances for more loot.
Welcome:
I also just wanted to welcome some new followers. Iannick, Paul McWhirter, and Fred Jackson. Nobody has their own blogs listed in their profile but I think I know who Iannick is but maybe it's a common name in Canada. ;)
Thanks
Thanks to Joe B. from Broken Paintbrush for linking to my magnetized jewelry tray post.
Gotta run. Cheers.
Jeez Sean, what an adventure! I truly miss WFRP. You guys got a proper beating...
ReplyDeleteHi dGG, yeah it was brutal. We tried to get out and heal up but the huse wouldn't let us. Vincent kicked ass as a warrior. Leopold had his moments he either obliterated things or filed miserably. Lukas was pretty good. He talked a lot of crap until his leg got smashed. Sally and Genaro are a great team but they got messed up, bad. Now we're in the flurry of figuring out how to best spend XP and loot as we head off into the unknown.
DeleteLooks like a proper dungeon crawl there. :) Almost brutal enough to be the sort of game where each player takes four characters in the hopes that at least one will survive. I hope you have many more great adventures to come.
ReplyDeleteThanks Composer. After be told how brutal combat was in the system, I jumped in feet first when I had the chance. Killing a Beastman strait away gave me over confidence. The next three encounters humbled me. Fate points extend survivability, but are a finite resource. Creating characters in WFRP is kind of fun though.
DeletePhew! Escape via painting? Very "Box of Delights"! I think it's time to turn the danger levels up on my players...
ReplyDeleteHi Rab, it depends on whether your group can psychologically handle it. I think this group all comes from a background of characters dying a lot. My personal opinion is that many of the gamers after I stopped role playing got into this weird vanilla thing where they couldn't die and became gods. When I played back in High School I was lucky to make it to 5th Level.
DeleteWow, that was very atmospheric and extremely creepy! If you do more like this then I want to know about it :-) .
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it Hugh. This session was my first as note taker and I wanted the notes to read a little more than bullet points. I think parts of got a little he did this then they did that, but I tried to stick to the points that actually had bearing on the story. I sort of did it like I do comic reports. Document just about everything and then try to discern what is significant to the overall story.
DeleteI thoroughly enjoyed my WFRPG gaming back in my teens. My character ended up as a... Werewolf Champion of Khorne by the time we moved on to another system, which was fun.
ReplyDeleteMadcap adventures for your group and some very appropriately nasty results to dice-rolling too. Losing a foot.... ouch.
Nice that you were able to take such detailed notes mate. In my gaming group, we're lucky if we remember a "gist" of what happened previously, let alone names, etc. :)
Thanks Dai, your game sounded pretty cool. We're a pretty unseemly bunch. Someone takes notes every session. I appear to be the first to take my bullet points and try to weave them into a more narrative presentation. I also like to note down weird things, like the name and occupation given in the current lie to the authorities.
Delete