Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - The Story So Far.

Just a recap and a place I can put up the current situation for my WHFRP group! (:

It also allows me to share the story so far with you guys. It wont be in much detail, but this was easily around 7 hours of roleplay, so excuse the brevity.

Ok folks, it's been a long time (a week or so) since that fateful night in The Spurned Wench. Since then a party has formed, consisting of Virivoldht (Alchemist Extraordinaire), Elladan (Shadow Warrior, also known as the Spurned Wench), Boris (Kislevite Kossar, and general all round bad-ass but good guy), Casey (Rogue Nuln Greatsword/Mercenary), Lorenzo (Initiate and Crusade Survivor), Orrik (now a Shamanslayer, or an Abominationslayer), Frank (Ogre mercenary) and Tim (Halfling Chef).

It had began in a seedy tavern called The Spurned Wench. A merchant had walked in and asked Casey (a runaway greatsword from nuln) if he could obtain some work, as the merchant (Virivoldht, i.e. myself) had received a good tip he could find sellswords in this tavern. Casey offered a hard bargain, so Virivoldht had stood up and announced he would pay 5 crowns a day to anyone who would join his caravan, and who passed his already high standards. This caused an uproar, and Virivoldht led them to a rather wide section of the trail to Middenheim.

Among the throng was the entirety of our cast. Immediately Virivoldht hired Frank (the Ogre Mercenary) as he would be very useful. He then announced to the throng of around 40 people he was going to Marienburg, through the Drakwald. Instantly the crowd halfed in size. Then he announced that to gain entry you would need to best the ogre in a no-blood match, whoever ended up on the ground first loses. Some more people left from the crowd.

However, a silent warrior stepped forward, ignoring the ridicule of the crowd ("look lads, it's the spurned wench 'erself!") Elladan (Shadow Warrior) stepped forward. From his cloak he pulled out some scraps and lobbed them behind the ogre, who tried to turn around too quickly and lost his footing. Without saying a word he stepped onto the Wagon.

Then, without warning a (very drunk) slayer (Orrik) charged the ogre, axes glistening. Things descended into chaos, with what amounted to a Greatsword fencing with a Slayer, and a Kossar fighting an ogre while being punched in the crotch by a halfling. Virivoldht shouted to stop the madness, and hired them all.

Thus the party was forged.

Along the trail Virivoldht introduced himself as an Alchemist, using concoctions and elixirs to allow them to travel at a pace unheard of, without sleep for days, only needing about 20 hours of sleep in a week. During this journey the history and profession of all the characters was revealed somewhat.

Virivoldht, an alchemist and merchant who travels the Empire selling cargos of rare substances, as well as refining his art, as well as making a fine price for being an Alchemist.

Boris, a Kossar of noble blood from far Kislev, who had been sent by his family to negotiate and investigate the state of the Empire currently, catch up on old alliances and generally probe and inquire.

Elladan, a silent brooding High Elf from further Ulthuan. He stayed quiet but he has a resounding hatred of shades, above all other Druchii. He refuses to state why (for those too curious, his family was murdered by them, but the PCs don't know this yet).

Casey, an Empire Greatsword from Nuln. He joined the Imperial Gunnery school but, as a slummer didn't have the finances to continue, so he joined the city guard. After some years passed he was inducted to the Greatsword regiment, but he realised this wasn't the life for him after being offered the position of Count's bodyguard. He stole a pistol, some funds and ran.

Lorenzo, an Initiate from Tilea, his village was invaded by the Arabs. However, as he and his comrades held out to a man, the Knights Panther relieved the onslaught. He went with them on a crusade through Araby. A devout sigmarite, he has returned to the Empire to spread the word of Sigmar.

Orrik, a Slayer. It is unknown why he took the oath, but he has revealed in his past life he was a Runelord from Karak Azul. Why he is now a Slayer is unknown, but it must have been a might fall from grace to end up at the Spurned Wench.

Frank, an Ogre from the Mountains to the east. He isn't an overly social creature, concerned only with his food and pay (which he uses to buy food). He's treated more as a brute and beast of burden by the party, and his past is currently unknown.

Tim, a Halfling Chef. Small and proficient with a Sling Tim comes from a large (not physically) family from the Moot. He is just looking to explore the bigger world out there and get paid well for it. He's also got an interest in what Virivoldht does for a living, and chose to accompany the strange man in the dark cloak.

So, the party had a long trek from Middenhiem to Marienburg, and along the way (the trek took three months or so) the Caravan was ambushed by a party of Beastmen. But it was no normal encounter, however, as there were only eight of them, led by a Shaman. And they were bright blue. Fortunately, thanks to Elladan's scouting they knew the followers of Chaos were coming, and had time to set up traps, involving gunpowder and alchemical fire. When the beasts did attack, they were met with bow, alchemical bombs, (explosive and corrosive) sword and axe. Interestingly, Orrik had charged straight at the shaman, daubed in tattoos he had inscribed just before the battle, of a luminescent blue liquid he had taken from Virivoldht. The Shaman had directed blue lightning at Orrik, but it had just been absorbed by the dwarf's runic wards.

Then the Slayer got his turn. It wasn't pretty. The shaman was piled to the ground and hacked apart by the dwarf.

The attackers vanquished, the trailed the beastman horns behind the wagon to deter attackers. It worked, and they arrived in Marienburg safely and unharassed.

Once in Marienburg, Virivoldht paid for their (particularly fancy) lodgings, and set about delivering his cargo. It was to a Dwarf workshop, and he was delivering Azulian blackpowder. Unfortunately, a small amount (half an ounce) had been used in the fight with the Beastmen, and the Dwarfs (being Dwarfs) refused to honour the trade, as it wasn't what they had agreed. So Virivoldht and his party scoured Marienburg, unable to find Azulian gunpowder. Elladan had found some Elven merchants who could obtain some, but it would be a number of weeks. So, they had to resort to bending the rules. Orrik was from Karak Azul.

So, they got Boris to challenge him to a drinking game. Honestly, Boris drew him. It was so fucking epic. Anyway, back into quick narration mode. The slayer was so inebriated however he let slip the minerals used in the making of Azulian gunpowder to Virivoldht (they were shotting 68% vodka, Viri's own brew). Virivoldht managed to craft some within the next few days, and the party moved on, all the mercenaries 450 crowns richer for their efforts.

The party then went to a town on the other side of the Reik from Marienburg, just outside the Drakwald called Ertropkh (er-tropiCK). Virivoldht wanted to deal with a herbalist in the village, and said the party would be staying here for a few days before they headed to Altdorf, as planned. However, something was obviously amiss in the town. Strange horribly mutated corpses were turning up all over the village and disappearing as soon as you took your eyes off of them. After a bit of investigating, the party managed to find a body, and went to investigate the history of the town, leaving Orrik guarding the horribly mutated corpse.

The corpses were like humans, but had huge red eyes, as well as similarly out of proportion fangs in their mouth. They also usually had more than 4 limbs and were very muscly, sporting appendages like flailing masses of tendons and muscle, but no bone (similar to tentacles), actual tentacles, claws, bovine heads growing out of their sides (with fangs) and such.

On investigation it turned out a generation or two ago a Hedge wizard had lived in the village, before falling to the powers of chaos. Elladan had investigated this on his own while the rest of the party had been investigating the bodies with the rest of the town. Elladan discovered that he had lived in a now abandoned house, and the house was in a street now mostly abandoned.

During the manhunt through the town (which is where they found the body Orrik was guarding) Tim had spotted some hooded men gathering in an abandoned house, but as he entered they had scattered and he hadn't been able to pin them down.

Back at the abandoned Sorcerer's house, Elladan investigated the hovel. Everything seemed normal, but on further investigation he brushed aside the straw mattress and saw, marked into the floor, an eight pointed star of chaos. Under another one was a Symbol of the Changer.

Gathering the party they returned to Orrik, to find him staggering and bloody, the beaten corpse of one of the mutants at his feet. It was obviously a different one, and he stated the one he had been guarding had disappeared while he fought this one.

Over the course of the next two days several events ocurred, and because I was dealing with multiple split up search parties, doing it chronologically could be a challenge. But the jist of it was:

The party split up, leaving some to guard the current corpse, while Frank, Viri, Boris and Lorenzo went to investigate the chaos-hovel. As they arrived Boris and Lorenzo heard a noise, like feet hurrying away, and boldly charged into the house. As they did so a Mutant came out of the shadows and attacked them. A fight ensued, and Lorenzo was badly beaten, but Boris saved the party by heroically decapitating their would-be executioner.

Leaving Lorenzo to consecrate the area, with Frank to guard him they returned to the others, who were guarding the first body, checking nothing had gone awry. Then Virivoldht, Orrik, Boris and Casey had returned to the local Tavern, to get some sleep. As Orrik, Boris and Casey had settled down to the bar, Viri had gone upstairs to check their rooms and organise his affairs. Opening the door to his and Casey's room he immediately saw there were three of the hideous white skinned, red eyed mutants in there, and ran downstairs, shouting for everybody to run. General uproar commenced as the mutants started down the stairs, Orrik running to meet them head on. However, he was dealt a blow to the head, and Casey dragged him to the party guarding the body in the streets (Elladan and Tim). They saw no sign of pursuit.

Something was obviously amiss here, so they had Frank drag the body into an outhouse, and Tim guard it. They reasoned if the bodies are disappearing then they'll know if they're simply vanishing or re-animating this way. So they left Tim to stand guard.

Returning to Lorenzo, who looked terrible, but was busy in deep meditation, they began to investigate the suspicious human activity in the village. Following various leads they happened upon a cult dedicated to the changer. Interrogating and killing their way through most of them, they managed to glean that the cult was waiting for "The Changers" to come to their town and free them all from their eternal hell. They took the mutants as a gift from The Changer and a good omen that their plan was coming to fruition. Orrik pieced together that "The Changers" were the Tzeentch-following Beastmen that they had killed on the way here. However, as they were interrogating the cultists more of the horrible mutants arrived, and the party had to flee, as the mutants were getting stronger. A random flailing tentacle injured a few party members and killed all three of the remaining cultists.

They returned to the tavern and found Tim sitting sipping a pint. It turned out the body had just disappeared from the outhouse, and that Tim had seen no sense watching an empty outhouse. While trying to piece together how the mutants were getting about and disappearing. Tim had a brainwave however, bringing up that there was a reservoir which led to Marienburg on this side of the Riek, and the waterworks for it must pass straight under this town. Further investigation revealed that prints they had been following earlier (smaller ones inside larger boots, they had thought no more of it at the time) disappeared down a grate.

The party gathered their strength and went down into the reservoir. They climbed down, using alchemical light to see. They got to the reservoir, but so far had found nothing amiss. Orrik (who had the best sense of direction underground) pointed out he had seen a staircase leading downward, and that if he knew cultss, he knew they liked to hide themselves as far and deep from society as possible.

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It was darker and colder this deep down in the reservoir. As the party traversed the tunnels, they could feel the great weight of all the earth above pressing down on them. No, they shouldn't be here, it was dangerous. The constant dripping of water gave a certain rhythm to the footsteps of the group, but after a while even that stopped.

Elladan took point. Looking forward with his keen vision, he could see, in the distance, a pair of glimmering red eyes. Surely not? How had they found them down here? However, thinking logically, this must be near their base of operations. Pushing forward he decided not to alarm the party, although he could sense the Dwarf stiffen as he saw them as well, and heard the noise of his axes being loosed.

Moving towards the eyes, they got nearer and nearer. Until, as they were about ten feet away, Elladan realised they belonged to a rat. Breathing out a great sigh of relief, he lowered his bow. Then something happened. All around them, he could hear movement. Hundreds of pairs of red eyes appeared out of the dark, in front, to the sides and behind the party, gazing down at them the way a predator regards it's prey.

They were surrounded by the chittering of rats.