WFRP 2nd Ed - Terror in Talabheim (Side Quests, Gathering Intel, Assault on the Necromancer)

Hi All,

I was realizing that I had left you all in the dark about our on going WFRP campaign quite some time ago. I'll try to post the notes to catch everyone up, in digestible chunks.

We last left the campaign here. You can also listen to the sessions on the GM's youtube channel here.

I don't recall at this point who the note takers were. It is not my intent to take credit for their writings but to share with followers of the blog our ongoing adventures.

Dec 10th 2017 (Side Quests)

Among some of the reports of areas around town by some of the recruits we hear from Karstashai that there is a Gray Seer that visits the engineering constructions. He has an ally named Aserack who is an engineer apparently. We also find out about a third Skaven leader in the Tallows who is called Nerosh the Separator. Apparently Aserack wants to see Nersoh dead. The Tallows are on guard to keep Nerosh in the Tallows. Apparently there aren’t any Empire troops outside the creator at this point.

Food supplies and weapon supplies are doing well at the moment as the recruits have been successful for the most part in their duties. Reports from the food runs were that the outer villages have not been harassed by Skaven at this point.

We were able to find several nice items down at the quarry,. Firearms, explosives, flares and ammo for all. Sally, Vincent, and Leopold each take a pistol. 

A Shalain acolyte came to the head quarters while the party was planning their next move. Lukas went up to speak with the acolyte. She gave news of what appeared to be a crazy man that was brought to the insane asylum. This man apparently speaks the Skaven language. And apparently the Skaven are after them. The man’s name is, Walter Guildford. The asylum is in the Gods Row. 

Leopold, Vincent, Silca, and Bjorn are going to raid the asylum and try to rescue Walter. Sally, Lukas, and Yavandir will go for the weapons up north. All party members take equipment that can be concealable under their cloaks.

The party for the asylum mission heads out immediately to take advantage of the day light. The walk to the asylum showed the horrors of what the Skaven have been doing to the townsfolk. The party got to their destination. It is a large building with many many rooms. They decide to split into two teams Vincent and Silca in one team and Leopold and Bjorn in the second. Bjorn found a Skaven and quickly and quietly buried his knives into the beast silencing it. While Vincent and Silca locate a larger group of Skaven and quietly hold their guard and allow the group of Skaven to pass. SIlca and Vincent are shocked when they come across a room with what sounds like shrieking Skaven language. The open the door and Walter tries to make a break for it! Vincent grabs the old man and fill him in on the situation.

Silca goes off to meet up with the other group while Vincent and Walter make their way to the entrance. At the entrance Vincent sees Leopold, Bjorn and Silica hiding by the entrance. A giant rat ogre stands in the lobby of the entrance blocking the exit.

Locations:

Guild Row: Marked Patrol Routes, Patrols of 5-10 Skaven with a leader with 2 pistols. Weapons were collected from this area, Many swords and daggers but not many ranged weapons but enough to equip our group.

Dragons Home: Siege weapons are aim at The Wizard’s Way, the biggest is in Dragons home. Genaro is in the area collecting lumbar. 

Nordgate: Weapons of Yavandir’s making, 3 swords.

Merchants District: Siege weapons are located in the area, as mentioned previously the largest is in the Dragons Home.

Manor District: The countess is not in the Palace. The Necromancer is located in the Palace. Dead bodies are still being transported to the Palace for the necromancer to work on. There are patrols in this district. These patrols also have Rat Ogres within the patrols. Though the patrols here are strong there number of patrols are very small.

Tallows: The other faction of Skaven are in this area. The leader seems to be a Plaque Monk and those in the Tallows are kept trap by the opposing Skaven.

Recruits:

Geerul Gladish’ – Former spice merchant, now slave. Does his thing, he is useless.

Silca Arrent’ - Knight of the Verdient fields. With Vincent and Leopold.

Honnor Skipenbur’ – Scholar and Engineer. Working at his project.

Bjorn - Knife man, assassin. With Vincent and Leopold.

Karstashai - Baker, Has Vincent’s elven Amulet. Continues to listen in on Skaven plans.

Pabol Roubandend - Halfling, stealthy.  Following the Priestess of Shalia to make sure she is on our side.

Otto Von Friedherst - Former Surgeon. Out looking for food in the Manor District.

Yavandir - Elvin Smith. With Lukas and Sally looking for the 3 elven swords.

Franka "Newt" Wilmer - Sneaky Child. Getting in contact with the Dwarves and the Meridian fortress’.

Heintz Aufwieg – Night Watchman. Help with food collection.

Konrad Fleischer – Butcher. Returning to work.

	Game	Character	Birth	Rel	Starsign	Doom	halfling	Ideas	Total
Sally	60	10	10	0	10	10	5	0	105
Lukas	60	10	0	0	10	10	0	0	90
Vincent	60	10	5	10	10	0	0	5	100
Leopold	60	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	70

Jan 1, 2018 (Gathering Intel)

When last we left our adventurers, Sally and Lukas had gone with the Elf Weapon smith , Yavandir (Avandil), to find some swords made from meteorite. Vincent and Leopold had gone with Silka and Yorn to try and find the madman Walter Godford, who has knowledge of the skaven and how they operate. Vincent and Silka had found Walter while Yorn and Leopold checked the other side of the sanitarium. Silka went to find them while Vincent talked to Walter and brought him back to the main entrance.

When Vincent and Walter come to the main entrance they see Silka, Leopold and Yorn hunkering down to stay hidden from a Rat Ogre and it's two handlers. The handlers have whips and nasty looking mancatchers. Walter translates for Vincent while Leopold uses the Elven Amulet to understand that the handlers ave brought the Rat Ogre there to let loose and feed.

Vincent catches Leopold's attention and signals a plan to draw off the Rat Ogre so that it can be ambushed in the corridors of the sanitarium. Leopold nods, but does he really understand? Vincent and Godford move back down the hall and the Rat Ogre hears them, it roars and takes off after them. As they run back towards the cells, Vincent and Walter hear the roars of the hungry Rat Ogre and the squeaks of one of the handlers goading him on.

Back at the main entrance there is a quick debate on what to do, save themselves or go after the Rat Ogre. Yorn is sent to kill the remaining handler, which he does with ease. Leopold's plan is to run down the corridor, opening up all the cells to create a distraction for the Rat Ogre, hoping to get away in the confusion.

Vincent tries to get Walter to keep running while he lays in wait for the Rat Ogre around a corner.

Meanwhile Sally, Lukas and Yavandir (Avandil), have made a big circle around the outside of the city to arrive undetected in the Schwartzhold Nordgate. This area of the city is filled with a lot of shops and living quarters of the artisans. Lukas and Yavandir look to Sally for how best to stealthily make their way through the area to find Yavandir's shop. They are bundled in cloaks, with no weapons showing and try to look down trodden like the rest of the populous.

Throughout the streets, everyone looks miserable and defeated. The group manages to avoid Skaven patrols by ducking down alleyways. The patrols are usually 5-6 ratmen with a leader in the back. The leader usually has a pistol of sorts. The group sees one couple who is stopped and searched on the street. Upon finding they have no weapons, nor anything of value, the skaven beat them mercilessly and then the commander urinates on them.

With the help of Yavandir the group makes it to the sight of his shop undiscovered. When they get near there is a great commotion. The plan is that is it is a regular patrol around the corner they will run, a three ratman patrol they will fight.

Stealing a glance around the corner the are pleased to see the shop is damaged, but still largely intact. It has been burnt, and one corner has collapsed, but the majority of the structure still stands. To their horror the see what appears to be 8 people facing a firing squad. The patrol is made up of a weapons team of four with a sinister looking gun and loader? It is accompanied by more strong, well armored rats and a particularly terrifying large black rat with a glaive. The prisoners; consisting of adults, elderly and children; have been found guilty of stealing food and sentenced to death.

Sally weighs his options and decides they should wait for the Rats to fire then make their way to the building in the commotion. The barrels of the strange guns begin to spin and one of the doomed men shouts, “Do your worst you Rat bastards!” A child cries and clutches its doll, couples embrace. They are shortly cut down to the last in a hail of lead. Sally is greatly effected by the carnage (In game turns he failed his WP and gained an insanity, this being his 6th point), Yavandir approves of using the distraction, muttering something about the fleeting lives of humans.

Once inside the shop they can see that Yavandir was very wealthy before the invasion. His shop had glass windows, which are now all smashed. The weapon racks have all been looted and there are many broken weapons littering the floor. The Elf suggests quietly searching so as not to call attention to themselves. They know that if they are found they will be summarily executed for being inside a weapons shop. They decide to stay and search for 30 minutes. They find a bundle containing 3 Tilean style gladii made from meteorite ore. After finding the blades Sally questions if it was worth it. They leave the area the way they came.

Back at the sanitarium, Godford keeps running, not having noticed that Vincent has stopped to face the beast. The ground shakes with its ferocious footsteps. Leopold, Silka and Yorn hurriedly open cell doors along the way as they follow the path of the Rat Ogre. Some of the cells are just filled with corpses and scraps, they have obviously been fed from. From the cells with live occupants, some run, some huddle in fear and some attack their “saviors.” Silka, uncomfortable with Leopold's plan from the beginning, says “We must leave now or commit to helping Vincent!” Leopold replies, “We are all going to die one day! We must help our friend while we can!”

Vincent readies himself for the oncoming Rat Ogre. Hiding around the corner he has his special Eastern crafted sword and dagger out. The Rat Ogre is completely surprised as it rounds the corner, Vincent grazes its ribs with his blade. The Rat Ogre is confused, how could something so small hurt him? The handler chitters wildly, goading the Rat Ogre to attack. Vincent is faster than the beast and strikes again, but his it is off and he narrowly escapes breaking his blade against the solid bones of the foul creature. The Rat Ogre is still in disbelief that this puny thing is fighting it. Vincent's next attacks stike home, causing a massive gash in the ribs (12 points) and small cut to the leg (5 points).

Now the Rat Ogre is really mad. It cracks the floor with one blow and rips chunks from the stone wall wit a swipe of its mighty claw. The handler is still goading the Rat Ogre, but it is in a total blood lust now and only focused on Vincent. Another strike from Vincent cuts deeply across its abdomen (11 points). Its intestines spill out from the cut, but the beast doesn't seem to notice. The Rat Ogre catches Vincent's second attack in his claw, but Vincent manages not to have his weapon wrenched from is grasp. The Rat Ogre finally connects with Vincent, a mighty blow to his torso. Miraculously his armor absorbs the force of the impact, leaving him unharmed.

Leopold, Silka and Yorn round the corner and see the terrible beast again. Yorn throws a dagger which buries itself in the throat of the handler, killing him instantly. Leopold bellows, “In the name of Sigmar! Die you foul beast!” as he and Silka rush in to attack. Vincent sees the handler fall, but the Rat Ogre parries his blows. Leopold delivers a crushing blow with his hammer (11points) to the beast's back. There is an audible crack. Silka also thrusts her sword into its side. The foul creature does not seem to notice these two new atagonists. Focused on its prey, the Rat Ogre swings its mighty claws at Vincent, who manages to deftly dodge the blows. As the beast stoops to bite him, Vincent deftly dances out of the way, lopping of its head with a powerful back swing. The hideous bulk of its corpse crashes to the floor.

In the aftermath of the battle Vincent and Yorn make corny knife jokes while vincent looks for something suitable to clean his blade. Walter Godford finally returns and hangs filthy rags on his person as a sort of disguise. The group manages to avoid patrols as they make their way back to the safe house. By now it is well after dark. Sally, Lukas and the Elf show the 3 beautiful swords they have recovered. Walter seems nervous, he fidgets and looks from side to side. Vincent asks “ Did you have any trouble? Were the swords worth it?” Sally just gets a far off look in his eyes. Avandil (Yavandir) shows of the swords. They are Tilean in style, but with Imperial iconography. “My finest work.” he says with what appears to be pride, for an Elf. Vincent asks him his opinion of the Eastern style sword he got from the Skeletal Knight in Gugula Skell's basement. Avandil says it is not dangerous perse, but might attract attention. It might be a good idea to have a Gold Magister take a look at it to see if there are any enchantments on it. Vincent asks for the surgeon to come check him out. ( I'm not sure if he meant himself or Walter here, sloppy note taking.)

The group starts to question Walter for information about the Skaven. He says, “We are all just pieces on their game board.” Sally asks Walter what he was studying before he was captured by the Skaven. (If he answered, I didn't write it down.) Walter goes into a mad explanation of the culture of the Ratmen. They have their own cities underneath every city in the Empire. The only reason that they haven't taken over the world is because they are prone to treachery, it keeps them from uniting. Walter has been on the run from the Skaven for most of his life.

Leopold then asks him about what the Skaven are doing in Talabheim. Walter says, “A Grey Seer is in charge. The Tileans speculate that its horns give it magical power.” He goes on to say that Azorak Steeleye is his name and he knew another powerful Grey Seer named Thanquol. The second in command in Talabheim is Ekmorkast, leader of the engineering clan, Skryre. Clan Moulder creates the Rat Ogres and creates other horrible abominations through splicing. Pestilens is the clan that creates the poisons and plagues. Its leader, the Plague Priest Nelrish has been betrayed by Azorak and is now being beseiged inside the Tallows. The final, and perhaps most terrible of all the clans is Eshin, the assassins. We have seen some of their handiwork in the murder of the apothecary in Talagaad. Vincent furiously writes this all down.

Walter then tells the group a little more history of the Skaven. There are many clans, but the aforementioned are the main ones. The Grey Seers themselves are not a part of any one clan. Skaven society is loosely ruled by the council of 13. 12 clan leaders and one place reserved for the return of their god, The Great Horned Rat. Some feel this is in some way a mockery of the Empire waiting for the return of Sigmar. Blasphemy! Apparently in their history the Clan Pestilens has waged war against the other clans for dominance.

Leopold wonders if there might be some way to convince Azorak that Ekmorkast has hired Clan Eshin to kill him, causing a rift between the two. This begins a discussion about the difficulty in obtaining Eshin assassin weapons and that weapons laced with warpstone would be highly mutagenic to humans. According to Silka. Walter then tells them, “Talabheim has already been mostly abandoned by the Skaven, only about half their number remain.” The group still ponders the idea of killing Azorak to “cut off the head” so to speak. These leads Walter to expound upon the difficulty of such an enterprise.

“Grey Seers are very powerful and cunning,” he says, “they move around a lot and are heavily gaurded by elite Stormvermin. But, if you cut off the head the body will die.” Walter has seen it all before in his time of incarceration with the Skaven. “I know how they think and work.” He says. “The Witch Hunters know, but won't tell the common man, that there is a second city under Altdorf. There are many humans working in service of the Skaven.

Silka then realizes that the Skaven are luring the Army into the range of the war machines to launch poison globes and obliterate the besieging army. With the army destroyed, the Skaven will come up from underneath every city in the Empire. This revelation is truly shocking.

It appears that the group is running out of time, they may only have days to complete four objectives. These are, destroy the poison spheres, sabotage the war machines, kill the leaders and somehow open the gates to let the Imperial Army in. We must be quick, as any one part of the plan may alert the Ratmen to our objectives. Our engineer contact may know about the whereabouts of the poison globes.

We know that Nelrish wants Azorak to fail because he is pissed off. Pestilens has been cordoned off in the Tallows by the Grey Seer's forces. Yorn thinks that Azorak may be in the Law District or Dragonsholm. Ekmorkast is trickier, he is constantly on the move and doesn't appear to eat or sleep. He appears to be fueled by warpstone. Another thought bubbles up, could we destroy the Taalbaston gate with the war machines?

Walter says the plan to kill the Grey Seer could be problematic. Besides being the best defended, if we were unsuccessful the Grey Seer would hunt us down forever. Yorn suggests using the poison globes to kill the Skaven guarding the Taalbaston gate, then opening it up to the besieging army. Silka thinks we can use our current cache of explosives to destroy the war machines. Sally then recalls that Genaro is one of the slaves building the war machines. He doesn't want to kill his friend. There is also a thought about trying to contact Deadeye, but we are not sure where he is.

Yorn summarizes the meeting. “ We need to find the globes, find an entrance to the gate tower, find the whereabouts of the Skaven leaders, rescue Genaro, and sabotage the war machines.” No problem.

Character	Adventure	Today	Character	Gods	Birth Pl.	Star Sign	Doom	Ideas	Race	Notes	Total
Sally	-	60	10	-	-	5	10	10	5	-	100
Lukas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	-	-	10
Vincent	-	60	10	5	10	10	5	10	-	30	140
Leopold	-	60	10	-	10	-	10	10	-	-	100

Jan 21, 2018 (Assault on the Necromancer)

It is the next day, just before noon. All of the scouts have returned to the safe house. Tobal, the Halfling, and Otto Von Friedhurst, the surgeon, have returned from the Manor district. The have 2 sacks of dried beans in their possesion. They say there is a basement filled with crates of food, however it is too much to take easily. They would need more men.

Karsta, the baker with Vincent's translation amulet, has heard rumors from the Skaven in the Merchant District. In a few days time there will be a couple of raids outside the city wall. One to gather more human slaves from the villages, and one to collect more wood for the war machines in Taalgrunheer forest. She has heard nothing about what may be outside the crater, but has heard that the Taalbaston gate has been reinforced with more Stormvermin.

Sally suggests we alert the general so that he can mount a counter attack on the raiding parties. The group decides that Lukas is the best man for the job. A further idea comes up that we should try to get Genaro sent with the detachment to the forest so that he can potentially be rescued by the general's forces, should the general decide to attack. There is also a quick discussion about potentially alerting the villages to the oncoming attack, but then the discussion devolves into something about the sewers and it is pointed out that the Ratmen have those completely covered.

Yorn pipes up and gives the opinion that attacking the raiding parties is a terrible idea. We are just being selfish trying to save Genaro and alerting the Skaven to any kind of resistance will jeopardize the overall mission. He feels it is better to gather fool hardy recruits, “fools, hungry for glory,” to destroy all the poison globes near the war machines. Sure it will be a suicide mission, and many civilians will die, but the mission will be accomplished.

Silka is horrified by the concept of willfully sacrificing innocents. Yavandir agrees with Yorn. Humans live such a short time and reproduce so quickly, the city would get over it soon, in a few decades at most. He also calls out Sally for being a hypocrite. Sally let the firing squad execute the towns people to further his goals, but is willing to sacrifice the entire operation to save his friend, one person. Leopold and Vincent point out that the information being shared with the general is important. It is also out of the groups hands as to whether the general will attack the foraging parties or not. Sending Genaro with the wood gathering party, if it can be accomplished, may save him but does not jeopardize the overall mission in the slightest.

Walter also points out that the Clan Skryre Ratmen would probably be unaffected by the gas, as they wear special breathing devices. We agree that we still need to find the poison globes. Tobal and Karsta will go and scout out the Ratholds to see if they can locate them there. Sally says that we will only use the globes to kill our own people as a last resort. Silka says she will not be a party to murdering civilians, and Lukas points out that we would never be able to live in the Empire again if we did so and somehow beat the Skaven.

Yavandir then suggests that he and Yorn go and start killing Skaven officers and leaders, slowly working their way towards Azorak possibly. Sally questions if Yavandir has the skill to accomplish this. He reminds the group, in addition to being a weapon smith, he is also a sword master. Yorn reveals that he was a paid assassin before the invasion, something we all suspected beforehand. They think they might be able to make things look like the Skaven are murdering each other.

Vincent then asks Tobal more about his recon of the Manor District. He says that the Skaven don't go there as much, they don't like open spaces. They also don't go inside the Grand Manor, there is a strange smell of rotting flowers emanating from it. 

The plan is for Tobal and Karsta to find the location of the tunnels where the Skaven are hiding the poison globes. Lukas will take all of our intel to the General in Dankerood. Kippinburg, the engineer, will get Genaro put on a detail to potentially be rescued outside the city. Yavandir, Yorn, Silka, and three of her soldiers will come with Sally, Vincent and Leopold to recon in force the Grand Manor. Newt will take a rest. Vincent asks Otto, the surgeon, to make sure Karsta is ok.

Walter Godford ass if he is no longer useful. He doesn't like violence. We ask him to sit tight for now. Heinz, the watchman, and Konrad, the butchher, will watchh him and continue to keep helping obtain food for the resistance. Sally, Leopold and Vincent each take one of the Gladii made by Yavandir.. Lukas heads for Dankerood, planning to spend the night. Sally, Vincent, Leopold, Yavandir, Yorn, Silka and her three soldiers all head for the Manor district.

The Grand Manor can be seen from all points in the city. It looks dead, there are no lights or people to be seen. The Maiden of Talabheim banner no longer flies. We know Gugla Skell is inside. The three youths seem eager but scared. They pray to Taal and Morr. Silka looks determined, Yorn and Yavandir play with their weapons. Sally makes the sign of the hammer. We all agree that, should we get caught by a patrol, we will kill them all and leave no survivors.

The group almost runs into a patrol of 6 Skaven as they round a corner. These are the standard brown furred variety in rusty armor and tarnished weapons. They are lead by a large, black furred, Rat man that wears gleaming armor and carries a Glaive. They seemed to have sensed us before seeing us, the black furred rat screams “kill, kill man things!”

Silka says “take them now!” Her fighters rush forward. The large black furred Skaven attacks Silka while each of the rest of us each fight one brown furred Skaven. A clan rat with a spear faces off against Sally. He draws his Tilean gladius and adopts a defensive stance. Yorn and Yavandir work in tandem against foe. The youths attack but fail to hit. Leopold lets his pistol drop and hang from the lanyard around his neck while he draws his gladius and Dwarven hammer. The Skaven facing him drops as Yorn hits it in the eye with one of his throwing daggers.

Sally parries his foe's attack and Vincent is missed by his attacker. He ripostes with a swift attack, but the skaven deftly avoids his blows. Yavandir jumps into the fray wit a cut to te skaven's leg, it also avoids this attack. Sally then draws his club, while attacking with his sword. The blade cuts deep and causes the rat to spit up blood. Leopold lops off the legs of his foe in a vicious back cut, one of the youths steps on its throat, killing it. Silka kills the black rat handily and the rest of the group mops up the patrol. The combat is over in an instant.

We talk about grabbing some weapons for framing Skaven. Yorn grabs the glaive to use as a plant. Silka has been wounded but is determined to complete the mission,. “We need to reach the manor and finish this.” she says. Yorn trows the glaive away when Vincent worries aloud that Silka has been injured by warp stone. There are no further incidents and we arrive at the manor. 

Yavandir says “Let's see if the master is home.” Silka's three warriors open the door, there is a long loud creak. It is very gloomy inside. The group can make out silhouettes of furniture, columns and statues. There is a strong stench of death and rotting flowers. Silka whispers the order to her men, “Disperse, but don't get too far.”

Leopold says it would be better to stick together. They are in the main hall, at the far end are two staircases that curve up to a balcony. The group sees dead people in every shadow. Sally's inner sense is being warned. With every step they are going deeper into danger. There is now the sound of moaning all around. Dozens of bluish lights come out of the darkness. The zombies attack.

Sally, Yavandir, Yorn and Silka all cry out, “We are under attack!” Vincent and Leopold are caught by surprise. No one has any fear of the zombies, because we have all faced them before. The zombies attack with a burst of speed. Sally takes up a defensive stance and hacks off several arms that grab for him. Leopold's armor saves him from the strike of a zombie with a leg coming out of its back. Vincent is approached by a strange three headed zombie, but as it nears, Vincent's sword glows and repels the creature. 

Sally goes on the offensive and kills a zombie with his sword and club. Leopold hacks his attackers leg off, but it is undeterred. Vincent scores a wicked cut on his foe, but is also unable to drop it. The zombies just keep on coming, there seems to be 20 now. The group continues to move and fight, funneling the zombies into one on one fights. Their bizarre modifications make them unwieldy. Silka's recruits soil themselves.

Sally parries the attack of a zombie with a marble jaw. Leopold keeps his foe at bay. Vincent has a zombie latch onto his arm and is gouged by its claws. Sally attacks again, cutting open his zombies gut and nicking its arm. It does not fall. With Sigmar's righteous fury, Leopold thrusts his sword up under the chin of his foe, dispatching it. Vincent misses.

Sally suffers a hard bite to the leg, he takes some damage, even through his armor. A bizarre zombie with eyes for nipples, a grin in its belly and candles on its shoulders is quickly killed by Leopold. Vincent manages to swat away his attackers blows. Sally delivers another savage cut, but cannot kill his foe. Leopold's attack is parried by a zombie wearing a theater mask with hangars for hands. Vincent and his foe swipe at each other to no effect.

Sally parries the attacks of his zombie while Leopold takes a savage gash to the face. Silka shouts “Hold the line!” The sound of meat hitting the floor gets louder. Sally staggers his opponent with another swift cut. Leopold misses with a cut and shouts “Sigmar's fury!” as he punches his foe with the hilt of his sword, cracking its mask. He stomps on its prone form, killing it. Vincent knicks, then harshly cuts the arm of another zombie.

The relentless flow of zombies forces the group towards the stairs, they are cut off from the entrance. Gugula Skell has been busy. Waves of zombies keep coming, in the darkness they can see hulks lumbering forward. They tower over the rest. As the group is pushed back, for every one zombie killed, two take their place. Silka and Yavandir both yell out to the group to “move to the stairs.”

Sally's zombie is almost down, but it still manages to deflect his blows. Leopold's zombie has hook hands, eyes stitched open and gold wire pulling back the skin on its face. He misses the horrible creature. Vincent, as a Knight of Morr, is horrified by the zombies. Another latches onto his arm but is unable to get through his armor. Sally, tiring from the unabated combat, misses his foe. Leopold is also beginning to fatigue and misses. The fighters are now packed in so tight it is more difficult to swing their weapons.

Vincent manages to kill a three headed zombie by cutting its leg off then splitting it in two with a back cut up the groin. A fox headed zombie, gold in its eye socket and a chest full of wriggling fingers, attacks Sally to no avail. The group continues to inch towards the stairs. Leo kills another zombie while Vincent seems to be guarded by Morr. Sally then sinks his blade into a zombie's shoulder and Leo almost cuts of his attackers leg. Vincent stabs his zombie through the eye socket. As it tries to pull itself further down his blade, towards him, Vincent twists it and cuts off the zombies fingers.

Sally dodges a blow and Leopold jumps back from what would have been a vicious groin strike. The group has only a few seconds before the hulking zombies will be upon them. Sally stabs a zombie in the head, grey matter covers his blade. A second cut he makes to the arm downs it. One of Silka's youths falls to the clawing horde, his throat ripped out. Leopold is unable to hit his target, but the bodies are pressed so close he stabs into the rotting flesh of others. Vincent misses and over extends. He is very lucky not to have his sword ripped from his grasp.

As the hulks get closer, the group can now make them out. They appear to be made from four to five bodies sewn together. One of them looks like a giant flesh spider. They swat their own smaller brethren out of the way as they advance. Sally parries multiple blows from a many armed zombie. Leopold takes a gash to his leg, and a zombie is shoved onto Vincent's extended sword by the pressing throng. Sally can't seem to get his sword to bear, Leopold makes two deep cuts, but his foe presses ever forward. Vincent assumes a defensive stance. Sally takes a light wound to the arm. Leopold is in such a tight press that no one can hit each other. Vincent parries all incoming attacks. The group, exhausted from the unrelenting combat, all assume a defensive posture as they shuffle back towards the stairway.

The zombies furiously try to overwhelm the group with numbers. Sally bats away more attacks, Leopold is almost knocked to the ground and Vincent pushes back his opponent with a savage kick. Silka cries, “The stairs are here!” Sally defends himself again while Leopold buries his sword in another zombies head. Vincent also takes up a defensive stance. They are all now at the base of the stairs. Silka and Yavandir both shout out, “Kill the ones nearest to you and get up the stairs!” Sally and Vincent cannot break away, Leopold can.

Sally parries two attacks, narrowly missing a hit to the head. Leopold dodges one blow (using a luck point) and kicks a second attacker out of his way. Vincent is missed by one and tears his shirt from the grasp of another. Silka and Yorn yell at the three to run faster. Hundreds of zombies swarm after the small band. There are two large double doors directly to the front and one smaller door to each side. Silka tries the double door, it is locked. Yorn tries to pick the lock, but fumbles with it as the zombies slowly swarm up the stairs. Sally and Vincent look around the stair landing and see tables near the edge.

“I've got it, get inside!” Yorn shouts as he shoulders the doors open and falls inside. As the last of the group gets inside they slam the doors and start pushing furniture against them as a barricade. The group can hear moaning and banging through the door. Perhaps the hulks a pounding on it. The group continues to gather furniture from the hall and wedge it against the door. We feel we are safe for now and attempt to catch our breath. But suddenly we are overwhelmed by the stench of decay and a great whooshing noise.

With the beating of great, horrible wings, horror descends upon the group. The immense, rotting husk of a great lizard. We can see the suggestion of ribs and muscle poking through its decaying flesh. A silhouette of a woman can be seen sitting on top. It is Gugula Skell. “I will kill you and turn you into works of art.” she cries as they descend. Vincent whimpers in fear and runs for the door (he adds one insanity point.) As the dragon lands, it lets out a terrible roar. It is like the sound of a storm over a field of bones and ash. Silka prays to Myrmidia, Yavandir starts to chant a battle mantra in his strange, Elven, tongue. Yorn just looks maniacal.

Character	Adventure	Today	Character	Gods	Birth Pl.	Star Sign	Doom	Ideas	Race	Notes	Total
Sally	-	70	10	5	10	10	10	10	5	-	130
Lukas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	-	-	10
Vincent	-	70	10	10	10	10	-	10	-	-	120
Leopold	-	70	10	10	-	-	-	10	-	-	100

So that's the next three sessions, catching us up through January 2018.

I'd also like to welcome Ghola Scale to the blog. If you have a hobby blog you'd like linked, let me know.

Thanks for looking and commenting.