|
Wouter Dhondt
Belgium
Anzegem
My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the Emperor's name, let none survive.
When I now saw this Coppelius, the frightful and terrific thought took possession of my soul, that indeed no one but he could be the Sandman.
-
A couple of boardgaming friends of mine wanted to try Dungeons & Dragons or another RPG and asked me if I could help them with that. The only D&D stuff I have is AD&D 2nd edition, and while I still have fond memories of that game I prefer to run something else. I knew one of them used to play the Warhammer miniature game so I suggested I'd run WFRP 2nd edition for them. They quickly agreed and found two other guys wanting to play an RPG. So I had four new people playing an RPG for their first time.
I let them choose a career and background up front and we rolled the characters on the day of the first adventure. As you will read there is some "immature" stuff here and there. Guess we got carried away.
These are the characters and the background they came up with (their words):
Mark, an Dwarven Apprentice Runesmith wrote:
Comes from a long line of smiths that unfortunately has fallen into disarray. Originally this family lived in Karak 8 Peaks and its fall has meant that most of the clan have gone their separate ways. My direct ancestor stayed in Karak 8 peaks and I got adopted by a clan member. My arrogance and desire for new things led to some friction. Although my training was going by the book, my mentor still found a reason to send me away for a typical riddle which should help in my "quest for knowledge". Although I realize that my mission can yield very good results, the fact that generations before me have tried to unlock this secret and each one failed, the quest looks more like a polite way to keep me out of the job. So I've been travelling the Empire a few years. And as all my clans wealth is still in Karak 8 peaks I sell my services to those who can pay for the expertise of a dwarf. In the meantime I continue to search for any remaining remnants of Dwarfs (knowledge, weapons, ...) and continue my mission even after a full night's Bugman XXXXXXXXX. Pride and the long line of respected Rune Smiths make a commitment and success is not an option.
Kevin, a Human Initiate of Morr wrote:
I used to be collector of taxes. A particular village should've been punished for the refusal of paying the tax. Unfortunately due to an embarrassing mistake (do not ask, really) I burned and massacred the wrong village. Out of guilt I decided to serve Morr, both to guide the innocent dead souls to the afterlife and to beg my god that my nightmares go away.
Not sure what I am doing in the compagny of a dwarf, a halfling and an elf, but no doubt people are going to die in their presense and they deserve a decent burial.
Ken, an Elf Apprentice Wizard wrote:
I have been constantly bullied during my early years because I was the only Elf with glasses. I started boarding school at a young age in Hogwarts. Despite a successful experiment with 100,000 bottles of cola and a few packets of mentos in the library of the school, they urged me to leave school ... I suspect they wanted someone with round glasses.
I joined this gang after a failed career in the movie industry. 2 guys who may serve as a bar stool and table to put my glass on, and a third that can't read a map. Nor worthy of the compagny an Elf, but still better than the last movie role they offered me: something with a ring and two towers. Pff how do they come up with stuff like that.
Tim playing Hugo the horny halfling (Rogue) wrote:
I was born in the Moot. Unfortunately I have a strong urge for mischief, even by halfling standards The gorge and drinking could still be accepted (of course), but constantly trying to hump anything that moves was a problem. I have four illegitimate children, whom I've never looked after. One of them was with, unfortunately, the fourth daughter of the biggest brewer in the Moot and thus a fairly powerful man. This has ensured that I just got banned from the Moot. To the outside world I pretend I left voluntarily because it was too boring.
Once outside the Moot I came into contact with the concept of "gambling" and I see this as an excellent way to earn my livelihood (besides selling my body to anyone willing). Basically I am rather lazy and am driven mainly by food, sex and money (roughly in that order).
What can I say...
No names for the characters yet, except Hugo. So I'll be using their race to address them.
I used the adventure "For Love or Money" from the plundered vaults. It's a nice small adventure and should give them an idea about the warhammer world and the RPG. Note: from here on there will be spoilers.
The company arrives at Mittlersdorf, a small town in Wissenland. The watch is closing the gates for the evening and the elf runs up to them with the others following. The watch are friendly to the newcomers but they do want to charge them.
"That's 5s a person for entering."
"But why?"
"Our shiny new armor doesn't pay for itself. Now pay or leave. Or will I need to call more men?"
They quickly pay the watch and ask directions to the nearest Inn. The watch explains the directions to the "Merry Halfling Inn", best place in Mittlersdorf.
They enter the Merry Halfling Inn and the proprietors Anja & Karl Kettlebrew help them with anything they need. Which is beer and food and a separate room for each. Karl also gives the elf a kettle and requests to put it on his head. The elf is flabergasted and Karl quickly explains it's a protection against the wizards winds of magic. They are not fond of wizards in these parts. Meanwhile Hugo the halfling is stealing food from the initiates plate.
Local town smith Ned Weiss introduces himself and answers any questions they have about Mittlersdorf. Ned is checking their weapons and purses as he talks but no one seems to notice. The dwarf stands up and introduces himself to Grod Thunderfist, another dwarf in the inn. Grod is exited to meet a fellow dwarf and immediately talks about a quest in Zhufbar. He is looking for adventurers to aid him and free the city from the greenskins. The villagers standing near to Grod all start to moan.
"Not that Zhufbar stuff again. Zhufbar this, Zhufbar that. Your tales are getting old Grod."
"You have never seen the magnificence that is Zhufbar!"
"Tell me Grod, how many adventures did you pay for this quest? How many have returned?"
"It's not my fault some incompetent adventurers can't handle some greenskins! My fellow dwarf over here will surely understand."
At this point the door of the Inn flies open and a young man enters. His clothes are wet and torn and he has a nasty head wound. He starts yelling at someone.
"Bertram, you said this would be easy! But my friends where slaughtered. Now pay the rest or die!"
He tries to stab Bertram with his knife, but Bertram easily avoids it. Bertram takes his sword to fight him and it's clear that the young man is no match for him. Karl stops the fighting and sends Ned to find the surgeon for Wil, the young man. Bertram excuses himself to the PCs.
"I'm sorry for this. Don't want to fight in front of tourists. Hardly a way to welcome you into our town. I'm Bertram Bediensteter. Say, you look like you can handle the job. Easy money. I'll pay you 20gc upfront and 100gc when the job is done. You only have to find something my master has lost. Think about it, I will be here tomorrow morning and await your decision." With that he gets up and leaves. Grod fell drunk asleep on the table so there is little else the PCs can do than turn in for the night.
Bertram is waiting for them in the Inn when they wake up. They are of course interested in easy money so Bertram pays them 20gc and they are off to see his master Bela Dustermann. Bertram leads them into his masters study and then leaves them. Bela quickly explains the situation.
"It's my daughter Julianne. She's run off you see. She's in love with a local thug, head of a gang and they are hiding somewhere out of town. I want you to get her back home before those ruffians do something to her. I'll pay you 20gc if you agree and 100gc when the job is done".
The PCs don't mention they've already been payed 20gc and even ask for more money. Bela agrees to pay them 30gc upfront and gives a pouch with money to the halfling. The other three keep a close eye on him and the money. They don't ask Bela a lot of questions and leave as fast as they can. Outside they divide the money and decide to split up.
Hugo the halfling goes to the smithy. Everything looks deserted and Ned isn't there. Todd the apprentice comes out thinking his master arrived but he sees the halfling instead.
"Have you seen my master. He suddenly disapeared yesterday evening".
"Nope sorry. No idea where he is."
"I'm here all helpless and alone" says the apprentice.
"But you can still sell stuff can't you? Let me buy a sling". (*)
"We have a "buy one sling, get two rocks free" promotion, so you're in luck"
The elf ends up at the market, buying clothes. He purchases green tights, several sizes to small to clearly shows his "features". So I gave him an Intimidate bonus while wearing them.
The dwarf talks to the watch. Apparently they saw Ned leave town in a hurry last night. No idea where he went though.
The human goes to the apothecary, a good friend of Julianne. He learns a little about Julianne, her boyfriend and Bela. He purchases some healing herbs.
After this they meet at the Inn informing each other what they learned. The dwarf decides to go to the smithy himself. Not to rob the place but to make a weapon. The elf and human stay at the Inn and the halfling goes to the surgeon. He questions the surgeon about the young man but learns little new. The halfling offers to cook some pie for the surgeon for money and then sells his body for a place to sleep tonight. He's so cheap he doesn't want to sleep at the Inn and prefers sharing a bed with the surgeon. The surgeon agrees.
Meanwhile at the inn Bertram enters and sees the elf and the human sitting there. He tells them that they should find Julianne as quick as they can and they should not linger here. He threatens to inform his master and Bela will probably deduct 5gc for each day they are late. So they quickly get the Dwarf at the smithy and pull the halfling out of the surgeons bed.
Out the main gate they quickly discover the trail of Ned and follow it south. The trail ends at the river and they can see a raft on the other side. They hesitate a few moments if they should swim or not but ultimately decide not to. They go back north and use the ferry to cross the river.
"That's 1p a leg to cross" says the ferryman while looking at them. Two of the immediatly stand on one leg and pretend they are cripple and miraculously they fool the ferryman. The halfling has to pay for three legs due to his "hasty departure from the surgeons house". They pay the man, get accross the river and go south to the raft. They easily pick up the trail there.
After a few miles they discover a body lying in the grass. Ravens all around him. The initiate of Morr prepares the burial of the man and the halfling decides to try his sling on the ravens. This fails miserably and pisses of the dwarf who takes a swing with his axe at the halfling and hits him. The halfling is wounded and pissed and decides to return to town and the bed of the surgeon. The other three check the body and discover it is Ned, the missing town smith. They also discover a tattoo and a note none of them can read. Too bad the one able to read the note returned to the town. They find other tracks nearby and decide to follow them. Further on they discover the bandit's cave with several dead bandits inside. One bandit is still alive (somewhat) and turns out to be Julianne boyfriend. They interrogate him and he tells them the bandits where attacked at night by unknown assailants that came through some holes at the back of the cave. They took Julianne with them. The initiate kills the man with his mace after they learn all they can and prepares to have another ceremony in the name of Morr. The elf decides to help the human with the bodies and they discover the bandits have the same tattoo as Ned. The dwarf returns to town to fetch the halfling.
He took the note with him and the halfling is able to read it. Apparently it describes the adventurers and was a note intended for the bandits. It seems Ned was selling information to them. The halfling says the note only mentions the human and the dwarf. But he decides to join the group again and see what's going on. They arrive back at the cave where the service to Morr finished just in time. They decide to crawl through the holes where the attackers came through. After crawling a few hundred meters they end up in another room in the cave. It's dirty with rotting food and feces. They poke around in the feces and try to determine what creature lived here. But none gets any wiser. At the end of the room is another hole they can crawl through so they continue their journey.
They spring a trap after another hundred meters. Part of the crawl-way comes down and buries the dwarf. The halfling doesn't care but the other two help the dwarf out. They are able to continue and reach the end of the tunnel in a clearing in the forest. Here they see another trail and hear noises up ahead. The halfling goes scouting and sees 4 man-size rats with a girl as prisoner. The skaven don't notice the halfling and have a hard time running with the girl as she gets sick all the time and they have to stop now and then. The halfling returns to the others and they decide to attack the skaven. Combat is swift. They kill one skaven and the skaven leader. The two other skaven run off. The halfling decides to cut of the tails and take them with him.
The girl off course is Julianne. She looks pregnant (even looks like early stages of labor) though she claims they haven't consummated their love. The halfling tries to make a pass at her but he fails. They try to heal her but nothing seems to work and she's getting worse all the time. The human decides to carry the girl to town to speed things up but after she vomits all over his clothes she has to walk the rest of the way.
They reach the house of Bela Dustermann. He's ecstatic that they found his daughter. The halfling shows the tails of the skaven and this frightens Bela.
"I feared they'd come. They told me they'd collect their debt. They captured me a year ago and I promised them I'd make a potion for them if they'd release me. I never did make the potion thinking they wouldn't be able to go after me in town. Please guard my house tonight. I will pay you an extra 200gc if we survive the night". The PCs agree. They also fetch the surgeon to tend to Julianne's illness.
In the middle of the night the PCs hear the sound of breaking glass. They open a door and see three skaven in the house. They engage them right away. During combat they hear another glass breaking and the sound of combat somewhere else in the house. They kill the three skaven and quickly run to the lab of Bela. When they open the door they see some more skaven in combat with Bertram while Bela and the surgeon are next to Julianne who is restrained on a stone table and obviously in pain. The skaven are determined to get Julianne. The dwarf engages the skaven and the other PCs decide to stand next to Bela to protect Julianne. Suddenly Julianne breaks her restraints and transforms in a chaos beast. Apparently Bela dabbled with the power of chaos and used his daughter in his experiments to create mutations and she is the real prize the skaven are after. When Bela was captured by the skaven he promised them a chaos mutant. They gave him a year. And now the transformation is complete.
The pregnant belly turns out the be a huge mouth and the chaos beast roars in anger. The surgeon faints and Bela starts to cast spells, though he fails most of them. The elf is casting spells as well and he succeeds most of the time. The halfling tries to put a stick in the mouth of the beast (crocodile style) but fails and loses his hand. Meanwhile Bertram and the dwarf are able to kill the skaven and charge the beast. Julianne attacks her father and kills him, then decides to attack the dwarf. The PCs are able to slay the beast with the help of Bertram.
The surgeon comes back to his senses and helps the halfling with his missing hand. At this point the useless watch arrives and they arrest everyone. Everything gets cleared up and the house is burned down. A job well done for the adventurers.
Result: (dare I say) a success. They want to continue playing so we're looking to set up a schedule.
(*) No one wanted to rob the smithy. I guess they still have to learn a few things about the old world.
All images are (c) Black Industries
-
Kris Miller
United States
Lick Observatory
California
-
Excellent. I'm glad so many new players want to come back. It sounds like they had fun.
-
|
|
|
