Part I
Backerstag, Sommerzeit 13 2522
Upon arriving at the new Greenthistle townhouse in a nicer part of town, the Durak, Rudegar, and Alynna were greeted by the sounds of construction. It seems as though the Halflings were working to rebuild most of the home on a halfling scale, only leaving certain areas at their original size for the entertainment of guests.
Upon entering, the group was led into a dining room by Candlewicke, who introduced them to Granny Greenthistle in the kitchens. He briefly explained that she wished to meet the “saviours of the Greenthistle clan.” The woman seemed to be in the midst of making jam, and the room was filled with the scents of sugar, fruit, and sawdust. Upon entering the dining room, Alynna the elf, Durak the dwarf, and Rudegar the human find their patron Lord Kultzmann engaged in some intense conversation with Matchwicke Greenthistle. As the others entered, their conversation dissolved, with attentions turning to the new arrivals.
As they ate their food, Steinhager arrived to congratulate the Greenthistles on their recent appointment, and expained that Ruggbroder had “politely declined their invitation.” After quickly telling Durak, Alynna, and Rudegar that he’d like to talk with them later about arranging something with Elise Magirius, Steinhager explained he was much too busy to stay for lunch and needed to be off.
As Steinhager took his leave, Matchwicke tried to start conversation with the group once more, only to be interrupted by the entrance of Jochen Haagen. The man, seemingly boring and stuffy, came in to offer a sign of truce, stating that “So long as nothing of… that… kind happens again, I’m willing to accept bringing you into the fold. You’ll have to apologize the reckless actions of my underlings, and so will I those of yours.” After nods and a moment of discomfort, Haagen also decided to take his leave.
WIth his departure, Candlewicke made an offer to Durak about commissioning a wrought-iron symbol to hang above his doorframe so that people could see the sigil of the newly raised Greenthistle clan. Durak accepted. As an after thought, Candlewicke also made mention of the fact that the men named Morgen and Fein were reportedly operating in the Pit, the poorest area of town across the river Bogen from the rest of town. Greenthistle presence on that side of the river is quite limited, so if the characters wanted to go looking, they’d need to be careful. After Rudger and Durak expressed desire to avenge their hand and beard, respectively, the halflings told them to meet a contact by the ferry that night at dusk.
With that, Lord Kultzmann and his companions left the halflings’ new home, and wandered across Dreieckeplatz towards their rooms in the Happy Merchant. The Dreieckedplatz was filled with people crowding around the many Halfling pie carts present, selling pies 2 for the price of 1. As they approached the Inn, Alynna was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Without a moment to think, a fuming Elise Magirius accused Alyssa and the rest of the party to be traitors and the worst sort of rogues. She seemed unable to believe that Alynna would sign a contract with Steinhagen after she had explained her delicate situation to them concerning her recently acquired exclusivity contract with the Grunberg teamster’s guild (now defunct). Kultzmann intercepted the woman, asking to be introduced, and obviously somewhat embaressed by her behaviour, after a very brisk conversation with Lord Kulzmann, began running off.
Rudegar, quite angry and feeling decieved by Alyssa’s behaviour, began yelling at Alyssa for betraying the group and going behind their backs with her mercantile interests. Not wanting to lose Elise, he cut off his scolding to run after the young merchant. Kultzmann expressed his extreme confusion to the placid looking Durak beside him, grateful that at least one of his underlings wasn’t taking part in this scene. As Durak and Alynna filled him in on the situation, Kultzmann ushered the trio into a private dining room in the Happy Merchant.
Rudegar managed to catch Elise, but upon seeing his face she screamed and told her to leave him alone. This seemed to draw the attention of more than one passerby, and as Rudegar followed Elise to her home and forced his way past a slammed door to apologise, Elise seemed to be unable to hear him. After it seemed as though his pleas of ignorance began to be sinking in, Rudegar realised that pushing any harder would probably be useless and decided to return to the Happy Merchant.
As he entered the oak paneled private dining room in the Inn, Rudegar found the other sipping cooled wine and eating sharp cheese. He wasted now time before getting back to scolding Alynna, who tried to defend herself with the fact that she didn’t realise that her having signed a contract with Steinhagen would have effected her relationship with Elise so detrimentally. As the two began to grapple with that point, and Rudegar still making it very clear that the only proof of Alynna’s betrayal he needed was to see Elise’s crying face, Kultzmann cut in and told the two of them to deal with their problems on their own time.
Kultzmann thus quickly outlined the situation to the party. Firstly, his finances were limited and he needed to fill his coffers if he planned to successfully return to Swartzhafen in the Stirland with any hope of claiming succession. Thus, three options were available to the group: 1) to perform a Greenthistle-scouted robbery against the Haagen or Ruggbroder treasuries. 2) Accept an invitation by Graf von Soponathem’s daughter to attend a diplomatic mission to Helmsgard, investigating reports of possible instability under the guise of a social meeting, or 3) Despite not having much money, skip town and head to Ubersreik to be more able to follow his father quickly, should the man decide to move to soon. Unsure of the moral fibre of the party, Lord Kultzmann decided not to press his only followers into a line of work they might resent.
As he finished, Ada Maurer, the female Kislevian mercenary responsible for rescuing the PCs from their warehouse torturers, entered the room. It quickly became apparent that Kultzmann had followed up the party’s suggestion of Ada as a strongarm worth having around. She seemed to be Kultzmann’s appointment after speaking with Alynna, Rudegar, and Durak, and with her arrival the party understood they were to leave. On their way out, Ada let the party know that Amos Cadbury wanted to speak with them.
With a still somewhat volatile argument concerning morality taking place between Rudegar and Alynna, the group entered into Cadbury’s Tavern and Hostel to find Amos waiting at the section of the bar closes to the door. As they approached Cadbury greeted them with a forboding look after greeting them explained, “I don’t know if you catch wind of the real world in “The Happy Merchant” or wherever it is you’re staying, but my boys like you… so I thought it best to let you know. There’s a storm coming… and I’d not be surprised if it were coming just for you.” And as patrons begain to take notice of who Amos was speaking to, he quickly turned away from them and ducked into the kitchens.
Realising everybody was staring at them, the party headed out into the street outside of Amoses, back into the stuffy oppressive heat. As soon as they stepped out, rain began to pour down. Alynna let slip, “Wow. That was fast.”
As they walked from Cadbury’s, the group was gestured over to the stables by Theobold, the youngest son. He showed them a sword and explained his discontent with his current life mucking out horse excrement. He explained that he wanted to learn how to use the sword. After Durak felt a bit uncomfortable about going behind the boy’s father’s back, Rudegar agreed to come by sometime and help Theobold to understand the rudiments of swordplay.
Having caught wind of a possible fight down at the docks between the Stevedores and the Teamsters, Durak and Rudegar went to see if they could see any intersting brawling. Alynna, uninterested, returned to her room at the Inn. While at the docks, Durak and Rudegar caught sight of a nameless, but familiar halfling they had seen there before speaking with one of the Stevedores. After introducing them to Dieter Drucker, the halfling explained to Drucker that this human and dwarf may be able to help him, and darted off. After a quick conversation, the PCs found that Drucker was in love with the daughter of the rival Teamsters’ guildmaster’s daughter, Helga. He gave the two a simple glass beaded bracelet to deliver to Helga, who works as a servant in the Happy Merchant. The two agreed, and after watching as a fight broke out, they decided to head back and deliver the gift.
While eating dinner with Alynna and telling her about what happened, Rudegar discreetly slipped the bracelet to Helga beneath a napkin. They then headed off to the ferry to meet their contact and try to hunt down Morgen and Fein.
Part II
Backerstag, Sommerzeit 13 2522
Upon arriving at the docks, Alynna, Durak, and Rudegar were called into an alleyway near the ferry landing by a shrouded figure. Wary, the group entered the alleyway with their hands on their weapons, but the man pulled down his cowl to reveal a semi-famliar face. He introduced himself as Ziedl Cadbury, and quickly had the characters clad themselves in similar robes. He explained to Rudegar that his position in The Pit was precarious, and that he did not want to be associated with “The Halflings’ Pets”. Ziedl refused to speak with Alynna or Durak, and told Rudegar about Semund von Helmholtz – an local agitator popular in The Pit. After explaining that they should follow him and he would lead them to Morgen and Fein, he also pointed out that they would have to find their own way back to the ferry and over river Bogen again.
On the ferry, Rudegar listened to a story about Volkmar the Grand Theogonist from a maimed veteran collecting alms from passengers. Everybody going over to The Pit was in a hush, and people tended to keep to themselves. Rudegar gave the old veteran some money before heading off.
Surprisingly, the party found the Pit to be a quiet, if dirty, place. Then they came across the group of people waiting for Semund to speak, and things changed. The streets around one intersection were completely packed with people, with a makeshift stage set up ontop of crates, upon which stood a handful of people. Alynna’s sharp eyes were able to see a puffed up man, a plain faced pregnant women seated and looking at him admirably, and Konrad, Morgen, and Fein standing guard along the stage with swords in hand. After listening to Semund speak for an hour about how the merchant houses were pitting the teamsters and stevedores against one another to keep them from unifying against them, the PCs nervously tryed to avoid notice along the edge of the crowd as people dispersed. Finally, as Semund and his party took his leave, the party began to follow them.
Feeling that Rudegar would blend in best, Durak and Alynna ducked into a pub. Rudegar had no trouble following the party back to a rundown townhouse, watching them set to dine together through the front windows. A few people seemed to become curious about him standing out front, and he soon picked up some shadows, following him back to near the pub.
After attempting to order a drink and catching a lot of malicious vibes coupled with service to a “Chaos-blighted dwarf” refused, Alynna and Durak stumbled from the pub and attempted to avoid the few strongarms that followed them out.
The three roundezvoused in the streets, and very-nearly fled to the docks, catching one of the last ferry’s back over to the good side of town. On the way over, Alynna pointed out a small boat that was crossing the river in the darkness. On the boat stood a handful of people wearing the common identity-concealing robes of The Pit. Suspecting their shadows were attempting to follow them back across the river, the PCs discreetly watched as the cloaked figures hid their boat and snuck into the alleyways. The familiar halfling who introduced Dieter was also waiting at the Ferry’s landing, and also seemed to be watching the cloaked figures nervously. He explained that he would follow them, and if he didn’t come back, to tell Matchwicke or Candlewicke what had happened to Pasty.
As Pasty darted into the dark streets after the shrouded gang of people from The Pit, Rudegar suggested to Durak that they smash the hidden boat. Then, after a second thought, they decided they would rather just steal the thing, and use it in their assassination attempt against Morgen and Fein. As the trio got into the boat, they swiftly realised that not one of them knew how to manage the thing. After some desperate paddling by Durak’s part against the swiftly flowing Bogen, the party just managed to make it onto the other side of the river on the far end of town… barely.
The party approached the von Helmholtz townhouse after having hidden their boat. Rudegar slipped through an open window to unlatch the door for the rest of the party. Finding a few sleeping pallets empty on the first floor left him feeling disappointed, as he began going into great detail about happy he would be to finally feel Morgen and Fein’s skulls caving in on the other end of his club. Durak and Alynna seemed a bit frightened at this, and couldn’t stop him from going upstairs.
Durak and Alynna instead cleared the small first floor and garden of the house, before having a look in the basement, where a tablew as set up around piles of trash. On the table stood a map of Bogenhafen, with a strange path drawn out over it.
Upstairs, Rudegar lit a candle and looked into the bedroom. What he found was Semund von Helmholtz sleeping alone. The man looked to be sleeping fairly deeply, but when Rudegar caught a strange scent coming from the man’s mouth, it seemed more likely that he had been drugged. Finding the whole situation to be quite curious, Rudegar returned downstairs to report.
As he arrived, Duruk and Rudegar caught the sound of somebody coming in through the gate of the garden. They quickly took positions near the back door, and as a man knocked and stuck his head in, Rudegar and Durak wasted no time in butchering the man like a Sunday ham. His previously unseen companion screamed and ran off before the party could do anything about him. Alynna ran downstairs and gathered up the map from the basement, and while they debated kidnapping Helmholz, they decided there was not enough time and ran to the boat.
As the party managed to get the boat into the water, cloaked pursuers began to appear, approaching from the dirty, filth laden streets. The group hopped into the boat, and this time were washed on the far side of the river, outside of town.
Given there previous knowledge of the night gate, the party walked halfway around the city after cleaning up and changing out of ther filthy robes (now appropriately referred to as “murder smocks”). On the way, the party began to see smoke raising form the town, and could hear the sound of a commotion.
At the gate, the guards gave them trouble about letting them in, but after a bit of waiting, word came from Lord Kultzmann to allow his underlings into the town.
The party headed straight for The Happy Merchant, they caught sight of Loren Zimmerman speaking to a street urchin that they had earlier seen loitering around Dreieckeplatz. When they entered into the common room, Ada, Pasty, and Kultzmann were waiting for them. After the party quickly explained what had happened to them, Pasty described watching the group he had shadowed enter into the Goffhilf home. Strangely, the door already had appeared to be broken in, and with a glimpse through the window, Pasty saw that leader of the Teamsters guild had been slaughtered before the group he had been stalking arrived. The cloaked figures re-emerged, carrying somebody wrapped in a large piece of roughspun. As a fire picked up in the house, the Halfling ran off to The Happy Merchent to inform the party before going to speak with the Greenthistles.
At Lord Kultzmann’s suggestion, Kulztmann, Pasty, Ada, Rudegar, Alynna, and Durak all left for the place where the boat had previously been hidden. After seeing signs of a struggle at the site, the group split up and began exploring the city, as sounds of unrest became louder from the North of the town. After twenty minutes time or so, Ada and Alynna both found that an entrance into the town’s sewer system had been broken into, with pieces of “The Pit” style robes torn on the entrance grate.
Part III
Backerstag 13, Sommerzeit 2522
With an order from Lord Kultzmann to determine the identities of the kidnappers of Helga Goffhilf and possible murders of her family, Rudegar, Durak, and Ada headed into the sewers with the halfling Pasty as their guide. Kultzmann told Pasty before they left that if the opportunity presented itself, to take care of ‘the job’. He and Alynna headed for the fire to try and get word out that it was people from The Pit who caused the fire and killed the Teamsters Guildmaster, rather than a member of the rival Stevedores guild. The Lord’s goal was to avert an outright war between the two groups.
Meanwhile, as they proceeded along the walkways with Kultzmann’s lantern, Pasty takes the lead and gives Durak a map and points out a particular place to go if they should be seperated. Pasty seemed to be unnerved about being in the sewers. The stench was not so bad as might have expected. At first. Ada seemed to try flirting a bit with Rudegar after enquiring after his romantic status and involvement with Elise Magirius as they took the rearguard. After finding that Rudegar was in fact single, Ada made a few flattering comments. Durak and Pasty were at the fore, given their good eyes in the darkness. Rudegar carried the only lantern.
After some time they heard the sound of weeping echoing in the tunnels. After a bit of fumbling through the darkness on the walkways, Durak approached a dark cloaked figure hunched over against one of the walls. As he came close, the woman staggered back and told him to stay away in a terrified voice. After seeing the woman move around a bit, it became clear that she was heavy with pregnancy. After some comforting by Rudegar, the woman revealed she was Ennelein von Helmholtz and did not know how she came to be in the sewers. The woman refused to be left alone and seemed to trust only Rudegar. Pasty, Rudegar, Durak, and Ada all moved to a manhole and Rudegar escorted Ennelein out of the sewers. As the first up, as soon as she had her feet on the ground she began running.
Rudegar, unbrudened with a child in his belly, quickly managed to catch the woman after following her up. Angry, he began to question her in a more aggressive fashion, but restrained himself from being outright violent. This was fortunate, for just a moment later guards turned up to question him about what had happened. With a bit of fast-talking on Rudegar’s part, he left the Ennelein in the custody of the guards, who seemed more than happy to be holding the wife of a well-known agitator in custody.
As he returned back to the sewers, Rudegar quickly explained what had happened. The group went on to see if they could find the kidnapped Helga Goffhilf and her kidnappers… and perhaps determine how Ennelein had ended up in the sewers reportedly unable to remember how she arrived there. After walking a bit further down the tunnel where they had found Ennelein, they found their answer.
Durak was the first to see the glowing green light coming from the tunnel ahead. Making his way along the walkway alongside the oozing sewage, the thickness of the stench began to become less and less bearable for all present. The smell was tinged with the distinct smell of rotten eggs. As Durak approached the glow, he found that some of the tiles in the walkway ahead has been broken. Cautiously, he moved towards the hole and peered downward into it.
Standing beneath him between 4 lumps of warpstone stood a hazy black humanoid figure… which seemed to be held up by the cockroaches swarming over the entire body. Before Durak could respond, the thing opened it’s mouth and a pulsing pink and purple tongue lashed forth from it’s mouth, up and out of the hole, and attempted to strike at Durak with barbed teeth along it’s end.
As Durak fell back on his rump, barely evading the tongue, Pasty began to look pale, backing away. Ada and Rudegar, confused and uncertain of what was going on, began to move forward. Durak clenched his axe, steadfast, and attempted to attack the tongue springing forth from the hole, barely missing. A battle ensued, with Pasty losing his courage and running, while the creature climbed out of the hole and onto the walkway using it’s tongue as a tool to climb and weapon to attack. Though Ada and Rudegar wanted to flee, Durak persisted in the attack, and eventually severed the tongue from the body, causing the creature to collapse. As it collapsed, the cockroaches began to die, but many chased after Durak, who ran as best he could away from them. Not wanting to push Ada into the sewage, Durak jumped in himself, and managed to get away from the cockroaches who died as the followed him… although suffered from one or two that had attempted to crawl halfway through his skin and into his flesh before dying.
Ada vomitted. Rudegar recognised the body now that it was free of the cockroaches. It was Morgen, one of the bandits responsible for the loss of his hand. Feeling uneasy, Rudgar took a closer look at the warpstones, only to find two other figures curled up in the hole. After a brief conversation, Rudegar, Ada, and Durak found that the man and women in the hole were Konrad and Helga. Fein, the final member of the kidnapping troupe, had somehow escaped after having fallen through the collapsed walkway into the warpstone hole. Konrad has a second nose, which had sprouted on the opposite side of his right eye. Helga hid her face from the group using a hooded cloak given to her by Ada. The party did not press her to reveal herself.
After Konrad was bound, Durak performed surgery… removing the mutation (extra nose) but being a bit overzealous also removed half of the man’s face. He then asked Helga if she wanted surgery. She shook her head no, terrified.
Ada seemed less than pleased.
Deciding to make their way to the place marked out by Pasty, the stench of the sewers shifted to smell more like that of rancid meat. The sour smell filling their noses, lungs, and mouths was a bit much, and more than one character ended up vomitting into the sewage flowing along the walkway. Upon arriving at the door located in the sewers that pasty and marked out, they knocked as he had instructed them to.
A heavy-set halfling answered and introduced himself as Whistleclick Greenthistle. He said he’d been expecting them. The party then entered into a halfling-scaled office. They were told of fighting aboveground, where the Teamsters, Stevedores, and town watch were all at one another’s throats. More than one of those groups would like to see the Greenthistles fall, so he was hiding in the basement “common room” which few others knew about. Pasty was there as well, bright and cheery despite his recent terrified escape.
After washing up and briefly meeting some of the prostitutes present at this “Inn”, Pasty told the group that he thought it rob Haagen’s treasury tonight, as it would go unnoticed in all of the chaos outside. He told them of the route via the sewers through which they would gain entrance, and recruited one of the few people taking refuge in the basement common room – Letty Porsche, a plain-looking human woman who was known for her abilities to smuggle goods in and out of town.
Durak and Rudegar agreed to the robbery, having spoken of it briefly with their leigelord, Kultzmann, in the past. Thus, Pasty led the Durak, Rudegar, Letty, and Ada through the sewers, providing Helga Goffhilf with one of the small rooms in the Inn’s basement tha contained a bath tub and some hot water.
After making their way through the sewers and witnessing blood seeping down some of the walls from the fighting above, the party made their way out into the basement of the Haagen manor.
Having witnessed the lord himself coupling with one of the female guards in the wine cellar, the party snuck out through the servant’s quarters and into the storage area towards, searching for the treasury. Letty and Pasty waited in the sewers, as Durak, Rudegar, and Ada moved into the manor wearing servant’s garb they found in the laundry near the entrance to the sewers. Durak and Rudegar lost Ada after she moved into one of the rooms with to silence one of the drunken servants with more drink. After stumbling across a guard playing with himself as he listened at the door to his master and the guard having sex, barely evading a few petrols, and freeing a man named Felix with both of his eyes burnt out of his head with hot pokers from the dungeons, the party found the treasury. After Rudegar convinced the others that there was fighting that had spilled over from the city towards the manor, the two guards ran upstairs. Pasty then unlocked the treasury and two of the three chests were stolen. It was after Durak, Rudegar, and Ada returned for the final chest that trouble began.
As the PCs were halfway to the sewers through the servants quarters, the guards that had been sent upstairs returned with others to investigate who had given the false commands. Seeing the figures dressed as servants carrying away a chest from the treasury was enough reason to attack. Durak, carrying the chest from behind, took some vicious wounds to his right arm, barely managing to get the chest into the sewers. Ada stood back to guard him a bit as they finally managed to make it down into the sewers, falling down the ladder and ontop of some of his compatriots rather painfully into the sewage below.
At this point the party of Durak, Rudegar, Letty, Pasty, and Felix ran through the sewers barely managing to carry the three chests they’d stolen from the Haagen merchant family. As they made their way back to the underground inn, sounds of fighting filled the sewers. As they approached, the group found the prostitutes, a tied up Konrad, Whistleclick, and Helga hiding outside of the Inn in the sewers as some men battled with what appeared to be stevedores or teamsters near the entrance to the Inn from the sewers. Instead of waiting around to ask question or fight, the crowd of refugees joined them as they ran deeper into the sewers, this time following Letty Porsche, who seemed to know a way out of the town through the sewers.
Finding themselves at a grate looking out from a ten foot drop halfway up a section of the townwall, Pasty picked the lock on it as well as on the chests, hiding their contents from all but Whistleclick, Pasty, Letty, Durak, and Rudegar. They were filled with gold bars, 50 bars to each chest. The halflings took their cut of 10%, 150 bars, and Letty was given 2 bars in compensation. The rest belonged to the Rudegar, Durak, and their lord Roland Kultzmann. The group decided to rest until the changing of the guard, while Letty slipped above ground, promising to meet those who wished to escape as the guards changed at the base of the wall with her wagon, ready to carry them outside of town.
Ada slept leaning againts Rudegar. Hanna, a halfling prostitute who had shown interest in Durak (disgusted at the prospect of having anything to do with the wench) woke in the middle of the night to find the halfling girl curled up in his lap. Though he did his best to keep his sorely injured arm out of the filth, he woke more than once to find it leaning against the disgusting wall, taking a moment to wipe it clean with a rag.
