Of ethics, false prophets and true faith

The impromptu war council's planning continues. I am not a martial leader by any means and as such stay out of if for most of the time. Elmeric proves very valuable, coming up with some creative and sufficiently horrendous ideas on how to best massacre our foes and split up the four chaos champions.

A bit later in the day, Elmeric approaches me, wanting to discuss the use of magic and consequences of such. At first I find his ideas preposterous and on the very edge of heresy - comparing the wounds of a soldier with the Chaos markings of a wizard from magic gone awry? Surely he cannot be serious?

But, I discover, the teachings of the Sigmar church aren't quuuuite crystal clear on how to handle all the gory details in the field...should a wizard using his abilities in the service of law be punished no matter what? And to what degree? How about a priest? There were rumors and whispers at my church that even our magic, blessed as it is by the gods of man, still can go wrong. And to be honest, I never paid much attention during the classes focusing on magic...

In the end we settle upon a shaky agreement of sorts. While Elmeric respects my faith and hardline stance, he wants assurances that I will try to give him the benefit of the doubt and try curative actions if possible before sending him into the arms of Father Sigmar (or Tzeentch as the case might be...). After some hesitation, I agree. Shallya's priests can be powerful indeed and capable of cleansing all but the worst taint from a true believer - or so I have heard.

I am not entirely sure I made the right decision. I must pray for further guidance, but for the nonce there is no time for such luxuries. If something happens on the battlefield tonight, so be it. Moral qualms have a tendency to sort themselves out once you have been sufficiently drenched in the blood of your enemies and battlelust grips you!


We set up a vague plan, with a large reserve of men kept in the middle of the town square, free to be deployed to either wall. We will target the Chaos warriors, the demon and the fallen one. The priests will defend the sacred remains. I am tasked with carrying them away if the town falls.

Yavandir returns from scouting, telling us they are on their way - and half a bell later, we hear the roar of beastmen and thundering of charging troops. The mutants and beastmen are a fearsome sight, but the soldiers of this town are true of faith and not a single man runs. The enemy splits up as expected, we counter. One of the champions charge at the main gate, and falls into our disguised pit, impaling himself on sharpened spikes, dying a messy, messy death. I cannot help myself and a roar of triumph escapes me - FOR SIGMAR!!

The champions split up, and we get a message that the west wall has been breached! What? Impossible!! The next report clarifies the issue - the demon is wrecking havoc, having flown over the city walls. Rigo, myself, Elmeric, Felman and Caspar run over to deal with the situation. Shortly thereafter, one of the champions manages to scale the wall using one of the many ladders the mutants brought...and Julia is left alone to fight him, together with Yavandir. Not the best of odds...even for a true-hearted warrior such as herself. She falls, felled by the savage blows. Yavandir takes up the fight, using some of the guerrilla tactics his people is known for, mocking the champion and guiding him away from the soldiers.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have our hands full dealing with the demon, in addition to a minor swarm of mutants. We might have chosen the wrong tactic, as the two other champions climb the north wall while we deal with the demon...in the end we manage to dispatch it, leaving the mutants to the soldiers.

We run towards the champions. They are tough, emboldened as they are by their foul patron, slavering at the chance to desecrate an important symbol of Sigmar such as this. Brave Felman falls unconscious from a barrage of blows so vicious most men would have been crushed to a pulp. And meanwhile, the false one has entered the town, heading towards the shrine.

Elmeric runs towards the shrine to try to delay them while the rest of us desperately try to finish the champions. In the end our faith is stronger than theirs and we prevail. We rush towards the town square. I order soldiers to die for Sigmar, even if their death delays our foes by a mere second. They listen, and they obey, for such is my resolve at this hour.

When we arrive, several soldiers have been left as grotesque, mutated mockeries of themselves. Elmeric has fallen, sacrificing himself to stop the advance of the heretic. For a second I am glad that I won't be forced to finish him of myself if he had suffered the same fate as the soldiers...and then guilty that I even entertain such thoughts after he has sacrificed himself to stop one of Sigmar's holy sites from being desecrated. But philosophy and ethos can wait, there is heretic blood to spill!

The priests are dead as well - and the remains are already disturbed. Our anger rises in our throats, and we charge with all our speed. I bring out my big hammer, all thoughts of defense gone. I feel a deep satisfaction as I smash the hammer into his ribs, breaking several and denting his chest. The fallen one uses the most foul of the Changer's magics, surrounding poor Caspar with an unholy glow that briefly leaves him changed - but Sigmar's light protects him, as he slumps to the ground, himself once more. That turns out to be his last action on this world, as one of Yavandir's arrows strike true, burying itself deeply into his skull.

We kill the last champion fairly handily while the soldiers of the town finish off the remaining mutants and beastmen. The air is rank with the smell of blood and guts and the moans of the wounded and dying - but victory is ours, praise be to Sigmar!

Beware of false prophets - they will turn you into ferocious wolves

After 3 more days along the river, we arrive at another village, this one called Torpin. We quickly understand that something is amiss. There is no activity at the docks, the lifeblood of all these sleepy hamlets. The crew are wary of docking, considering our experiences at our last stop, so they drop us off and sail a bit further out again. Cowards...might be on their way to being slightly tainted. Something to watch out for.

The village is indeed deserted. We spot some movement in a few buildings, but upon further inspection no one is found - except the remains of 12 poor souls that is, half eaten. Hm. Ghouls? Zombies? It is like Tzeentch himself travels ahead of us! 

I suggest burning the village to the ground, but the others dissuade me. Eventually, Yavandir finds some tracks which we follow into the woods. For once his keen elven eyes miss a trap as he tumbles into a pit, badly injuring himself on some nasty-looking spikes. A while later, Caspar steps into a bear trap, his howls echoing through the woods. Ok...someone's looking to soften us up. Eventually, Yavandir spots some mutants hiding in the woods. 

For once, we decide that caution (some might call it cowardice) is the better part of valor and retreat to the village to lick our wounds and form a strategy. We end up planning to use Yavandir to encircle the spineless mutants, which more or less works - 60-70 mutants charge us through the woods! This time there will be no running, and my heart sings with joy as we dispatch the servants of Chaos into the waiting arms of their foul gods. After what feels like a lifetime of slaughter, the last eight of them surrender. 

It turns out they are all the villagers of Torpin. Some days ago, someone who called himself an apostle of Sigmar arrived in town. He blessed the villagers, then held a sermon with some sort of glowing symbol...and then the villagers started mutating. The "apostle" traveled south before things turned bad. My heart turns to ice upon hearing this - a false prophet, this close? Is he the cause of everything we've seen? Is he a servant of the Ruinous Powers, disguising as a priest? Or worst of all - is he a fallen one? 

We dispatch the hapless ex-villagers, ignoring their weak protests and pleas. Do they not understand that they are lost to the light of Sigmar, bless his name? There is no pity except death for such as them, and a hollow pity it is, knowing what awaits them. 

We return to town. I write a letter to my order, the cleansing flame, in Nuln. If we fail to handle the matter, it is imperative that the church is aware of this threat. We bid the crew goodbye and start out south. I suspect they are relieved to be rid of us...

After two days without incidents, we arrive at the village of Missen. It seems the false apostle has been here as well - there are bodies, and worse, a desecrated church of our Father. My heart is heavy, but there is no despair, only righteous anger. Oh, how my hammer longs to smash the head of this servant of Chaos into bloody ruin! The carnal pleasures of Slaneesh offers no temptation compared to the joy I will surely feel! 

As we inspect the church, a man approaches, calling himself Franz, a wanderer who arrived from the south. He is as surprised as we are at the events in Missen [eh...tror jeg glemte å skrive ned noe her]. Naturally, we are all very suspicious, but he seems honest and true, and so we agree to let him accompany us on the way south. We are catching up, and soon there will be a reckoning - or we will die a glorious death. 

What an exquisite mess

After an extended discussion about what to do, we conclude that our options are limited. It seems we are up against the leaders of Bögenhafen, and our list of potential allies is very short. We decide to go down to the river to talk to my old friend. He gives us a rundown of what goes on with the city council, and says that if we are going to go talk to a magister, we should choose magister Richter. He is known as uncorruptible. Before leaving we get a token, a token that will get us one favor from the river folk. Could be useful.

We proceed to talk to the priestess of Verena, Greta Harkbocka. She says that lately the city council has been very in agreement. She also mentions that Johann Thurgen came from Nuln, when his brother suddenly died.

We also speak to the magistrate; he listens, but is clearly unimpressed with our evidence.

After that we find the street urchins again. They have heard that another cut up boy has showed up. A man called Ulrik from the graveyard said this; he also said that a number of boys have been murdered and mutilated. Not good. Not good at all.

Of course, this means we head off to Morr's garden, to find Ulrik. He has records of the dead, there have been 12 of them the last 5 years. 7 street kids, 5 others. The graveyardworkers suspect the physicians guild in these 12 deaths.Something else happened 5 years ago, namely Karl Thaugens death. He looked very weird when he died, purple skin, eyes like eggs and his tongue hanging out.

When we leave Morr's garden, suddenly Morrslieb looks ENORMOUS. Very unsettling. Really not good. But not much we can do about it, so we go down into the sewers again. We find the cultist room, it has been cleaned out. We look all over, but we are unable to find any door, until Feldman finds a magically concealed door. Go dwarves, nice work. We carefully note where the room is, so that we can find the building up in the town.

Yavandir, Reinhard and Rigo map the sewer, and find another door, by following another guy in the sewers. In the area around the door we get a very strong sense of something horribly evil nearby. We drop investigating the door closer.

Up top, we run into some guards, but we talk our way out of that. Getting rid of the guards we proceed to find the building over the room; it is the Steinhager main office. And it is only 50 meters from the bakery...

We break in. Find an old guard, but we tie him up. Feldman finds a trapdoor in the basement. Up top there are offices, with a safe in Franz Steinhagers office. We crack the safe, by beating it with a really big hammer. Subtle. We find some interesting stuff. 500 gold crowns, A note from Teugen, saying a plan will be executed shortly. In the little Steinhagers office we find a note saying big brother sucks at business... Also we find a note saying "I have procured a child, so that the temple can be blessed". Again, not good. Kind of our theme for Bögenhafen.

We bring the old guard to Josef, he will bring him 2 days along the river before releasing him. We get some sleep, and get up at 9. The moon is still BIG. We head over to the Morr temple, or whatever it is that it is. On the way we are confronted by a mob of stevedores "quit what you are doing, or things will go badly". Obviously we are on to something. Good to know. Ranald will really appreciate it if I can bring some of these bigwigs down a peg or two. Also, they are definitely preying on the smallest folk. We also speak to the Verena priestess again, this time explaining almost everything. She says the skull we found in the room was the skull of a chaos warrior. In a book with a note about Morrslieb (often Morrslieb is a harbinger), there is something scribbled in the margin:

I see 7 and I see 9
all they have will be mine mine mine
The star within the circle is the sign of death
Beware the man who is not a man

The priestess goes on, the Ordo that we found mentioned in Franz Steinhagers papers is known. A secret society, known for its charity, where many of  the citys merchants are members. When we leave, a man in a square is shouting the "I see 7 and I see 9..."-verse. Then he sees me, screams "The mark of chaos is upon you, beware the bringers of chaos", and runs. Ugh. Then, Reinhard gets the feeling of being watched by something very evil. Again. Things were not good, but they have deteriorated significantly since then.

Further investigations and a breakthrough

After the tumultuous events of the day, I suddenly recall that we all but forgot to check Rigo for marks of Chaos! Granted, it's not very likely given the source of the accusations, but then again Rigo has been the center of some weird events....but thank Sigmar, there is no mark on his body.

Wary of being attacked by roving bands of stevedores (that's a first!), we pay one of the busboys to fetch the street urchins to the inn. After half an hour's time, they arrive. They've kept Taugen's house under surveillance, and as suspected [etter å ha funnet lappen på Steinhager sitt kontor om at den indre sirkelen skulle møtes etter solnedgang på spillinga før] a lot of "rich people" and their bodyguards met there yesterday, seven in all.

A messenger boy arrives at the inn and presents a letter from one Friedrich Magrius, who bids us meet him at the Golden Trout, the inn of the wealthy in town. After some mucking about we bring one of the urchins with us so he can point out whether Magrius is part of this Inner Circle, i.e. Chaos filth that must be purged. I'm skeptical about secret societies in general, a belief that has only been strengthened by this experience. I will suggest as prudent policy to my Order that all secret societies be treated as Chaos worshippers unless evidence says otherwise. Some innocents may be wrongfully targeted, but they will find their reward in the afterlife anyway so I see no problems.

---- Relevant info fra to spillinger før ----
The circle in the middle of the church/demon room was a star with a goat's head, the symbol of the Ordo Septinarus. Reputedly a secret-ish society local to Bögenhafen with a reputation for doing Good Things around town.
--------------------------------------------------

When we arrive at the Golden Trout, the kid signals that Magrius is indeed part of the inner circle who met at Taugen's house yesterday. The Chaos fiend tries to play innocent and convince us to leave them alone, bribing us with good food and wine (I obviously decline). After a while my patience runs out, and I slam the letter we found at Steinhager's office on the table, declaring him a servant of Chaos. His face contorts into a mask of fear and then hatred, before he yells for the guards. I would prefer to smash his ugly countenance in with my hammer there and then but recognize the dangers of doing so.

An unlikely partnership

After Yavandir fruitlessly follows Magrius to the town hall, we decide to follow the trail indicating an exit in the sewers from a thieves' guild. Sure enough, the inn topside (did I mention deep dwellers are surprisingly useful?) proves to be the home of some fairly shady characters - and the town guards. After a...misunderstanding nearly results in us and the guild going at each other, the local crime lord finds a cooperation more fruitful, given that the Ordo Septinarus' success might end up in the town being swallowed. We stay in the back room while they dispatch agents to watch Taugen's various warehouses.

After a while, we get word from the street kids who come to meet us. Apparently they've seen an actual demon through the window of Taugen's place! I see no reason to not believe them. A frontal assault is unfortunately out of the question, as Rigo "gently" reminds me. Hrmphf.

We hear that the magister we met earlier has fallen prey to an illness very reminiscent of the one that ended Carl Taugen's life. We go to his house, and this is indeed the case. Neither me nor Yavandir are able to do anything for him. We talk to Helmut Steinhager, the scorned brother. He is eager to take down his brother, but he proves of little practical value to us. The same goes for the almost broke merchant Rügerbroder. Taugen apparently knows everything and is able to send messages across long distances at instant speeds. Further evidence of Chaos.

At night we decide to check out the cellar of the Golden Trout. The guild has a backdoor entrance through the sewers. Fruitless. Sigmar! Let us fight Chaos head on instead of this useless mucking about!!

Trouble at the waterfront

When we return, one of the agents of the guild hasn't reported back. We decide to check out the warehouses she was supposed to cover. After a while, we find the place where she probably went missing. There are stevedores guarding the place outside. Thanks for the heads up, stupid Chaos agents! Yavandir climbs up to the top floor and after a while (and barely staying out of the way of a guard patrol) he finds a way in. Sure enough, there's another pentagram/star on the floor very similar to the one we destroyed in the sewers. 5-6 stevedores are inside, and the still living body of what we assume is the thief is in one corner.

Outside, the source of Yavandir's intense sense of dread finally reveals itself as the servant of Taugen we've seen before. He directs the guard patrol in our direction, we run away. Then he suddenly materializes from thin air inside the warehouse and informs the stevedores that there are "rats in the ceiling". Curses!

Enough with this - we smash the doors of the warehouse and storm inside. I give the stevedores one chance to lay down their arms, but they foolishly refuse. After a short battle we've slaughtered most of the lowly Chaos servants. We block the door so the guards can't enter, smash the star, exit through the roof and set the building on fire. Hurray, finally some action and some heads severed from the bodies of our enemies! Pray this trend continues!

A wasted journey and ominous events in Bögenhafen

After leaving the church [editor's note: etter første spilling, hvor vi fikk undersøkt liket til den påståtte broren til Rigo], fortune has us run into of Rigo's old friends, one Josef Quartjin. He informs us that our journey here has been for naught! The heir to Ostermark has already left town with a hired retinue. I figure it must be Sigmar's way of telling us we were not meant to join that particular adventure - and it saves us from the headache of trying to get Felman accepted by the heir.

Josef takes us to one of his and Rigo's old haunts by the rivers. I suspect they're more drinking buddies than friends, but Sigmar's strictures luckily don't mention spirits so yet again I fail to see a problem. Turns out that mr Quartjin owns a river boat and is heading for Bögenhafen next day. Now if THAT isn't a sign, I don't know what is! There is certainly nothing in Sigmar's strictures about ripping up a golden ticket landing in your lap, so we resolve to go there and cash in on Rigo's good fortune.

As we're getting deeper into our tankards, a couple of young nobles barge into the bar, stinking drunk and looking for trouble. Given that they have four bodyguards and the local thug-in-charge seems to be connected to them somehow (Josef informs us he's named Max Ernst), there's a decent chance they'll be able to stir up something too.

After roughing up the local patrons for a while, one of the nobles saunters over towards us and pukes all over Reinhardt. He didn't exactly aim for him, but he didn't avoid him either. He finishes off the childish display by emptying his tankard of ale all over him, laughing uproariously. I can feel myself boil over inside, and nobility be damned - who does this whelp think he is? I stand up, shoving my Sigmar symbol into his face and ask him to respect a man of the cloth and his friends enough to avoid such disrespectful behavior. The cold look on my face and Sigmar's touch must have sobered up him for a split second, and he backs off. Gods, that felt good! I am filled with resolve to always tackle situations like this head on.

After another half hour of making a fool of themselves, the nobles leave. We decide to tuck in for the night. However, we notice one of the shady characters from Köningsplatz keeping an eye on us. Yavandir sneaks out the back and follows the stalker. He takes up watch near Josef's boat, and Yavandir climbs onto a nearby roof to keep watch on him. On the boat, we come up with the most cunning plan of using Rigo as bait and trying a pincer maneuver on the rogue. I'm all for aggressive plans and concur.

The plan would surely have worked, if not for the fact that Yavandir sees him talking to someone, then a crossbow bolt sprouts from his throat! We rush over there and find two dead guys, both with a ring with a symbol of some kind and poison inside. They might be the guys trying to signal Rigo at Köningsplatz.

I spot a drunkard not far away, and command him in the name of Sigmar to tell us what happened here. Sputtering, the wretched creature says that a big man clad in black chainmail killed the two rogues. Hm, intriguing.

We naturally go to find some guardsmen to report the foul crime. Me and Felman soon come across a group of six, who are slightly suspicious but they're naturally convinced once they see my holy status. They inform us they're looking for a group of six containing a dwarf and an elf who have murdered a nobleman. I truthfully report that I know of no such group.

The river 

The next day, I undergo my initiation at the church. I am filled with pride of finally having been accepted into the church as a full-fledge initiate. I am most eager to continue eradicating the foes of the Empire from the face of the earth in the name of Sigmar!

For the next 3 days, we travel on the Altdorf canal, leading into the river Bögen, before we arrive at the small town of Weissbrück. Me, Felman and Rigo head to the local bar, where Rigo notices a suspicious character trying and failing to hide that he's watching us. I storm over, grab a fistful of his shirt and demand he tell us why in the name of SIGMAR he's watching us. Naturally the coward breaks and tells us a big man in black armor asked him to watch us and leave a note at a certain location if we appeared.

We try to stage an ambush, but Reinhardt is spotted and the killer gets away. We go to the few inns in the town and find where the killer, who's named Adolphus, and his band of five men are lodged. Unfortunately they've managed to sneak out the back door, get their horses and ride away. Damn. Caspar secures entry to their room, where we don't find much but we DO find a bounty hunter badge. Okay, why in the nine hells are we being hunted by a bounty hunter?!!? There's not much more we can do, so we just resolve to travel onwards and be on watch for an ambush.

The ambush

Not entirely surprisingly, we're ambushed the next night. 3 of the 6 are carrying flaming barrels of oil, clearly intent of sinking the ship and forcing us into the water, making us easy targets. The man who must be Adolphus roars that Rigo's the main target. An arrow wedges itself deep into Rigo's chest, blood exploding out from his back and he goes down. The battle is hard, but luckily we manage to take out the flaming oilers before they can torch our boat. Rigo barely manages to pull through, and both me and Caspar are heavily wounded as well.

Adolphus is carrying a letter from one Q.F., saying that Rigo's brother [???] supposedly is a [???] in some sort of organization. Mysteries upon mysteries. Well, at least we all get a chainmail out of the deal, Sigmar be praised!

Bögenhafen

The festival is well underway when we arrive. After some recon work we discover that the letter about the big inheritance is 99% certain to be fake, since Adolphus was the one who ordered them from a printer. So...we're left with really nothing to do, and since we're in the middle of the festival we might as well hail Sigmar by partying like only his disciples can? I am pretty sure that was covered in "Daily life as a Sigmar priest" back at school. We consume an outrageous amount of spirits, and by some miracle none of us end up dead in an alley. An unqualified successful evening, my Lord be praised!

The next day we go to check out Schaffenfest. After dealing with a weirdly pathetic dwarf determined to drink himself to death and failing even at that, we attend the tent of freaks. Rumors abound of mutants...which must obviously be dealt with. Turns out that there is indeed a mutant - a tiny goblin with three legs. In the middle of the show he manages to run away and escape into the sewers. Both the owner and the local magister offers 50 gold coins for his retrieval. As it is our duty to hunt down and control Chaos, no matter how tiny and insignificant, we naturally accept.

The sewers - Chaos confronted

Reinhardt leads the way, absurdly at home in the disgusting sewer pipes. Several of us empty our lunches into the sewer. I look at Reinhardt with new eyes - slightly more respect, but also more disgust. We try to locate where the little goblin might be when we're attacked by some sort of gelatinous blob. It attacks by trying to engulf us...but luckily we disperse of it before someone experiences the inside view of the ooze. I have a feeling it would make dispersing my seed among the town's bar wenches a bit more challenging.

Yavandir and Reinhardt manage to find the goblin's tracks. After a while we come upon the corpse of one of the street urchins at Schaffenfest, the very one Rigo for some reason paid 1 gc for I can't even remember what. Anyway, he's not only dead - he's been gutted and his heart is gone, and the octogonal star is etched into his flesh. Our hairs stand at end - surely this is Chaos at work! I am briefly afraid, before I'm filled with a righteous rage and joy at the thought of smiting whatever foul being is behind this. Sigmar's glory!

Yavandir is certain the boy hasn't been dead for more than a couple of hours. After following the trail further, we find a pool of green blood and a fake cover blocking a sturdy door. Caspar puts his considerable bulk behind a solid bull rush and the door is smashed open. Inside, a large chamber reveals itself. The octagonal star is etched into the floor with black candelabras and candles at each intersection between the star and a circle made of copper dust or the like. The beast skull is drawn in the middle and a bunch of tiny bones, including a three-legged pelvis is piled on top of the drawing. Rest in pieces little mutant, hahaha!

In the back of the room is a locked iron closet and a puddle of blood, presumably from the urchin. Reinhardt finds a very luxurious-looking handkerchief with the initals "F.S." stitched into it. Hmmm...might it belong to one Franz Steinhager, one of the leading nobles in town? It is not at all uncommon for Chaos cults to be led by corrupted nobility after all.

Suddenly, black smoke starts whirling from the black star, and a gate to Hell opens and a Chaos being emerges. Several of us, including to my shame myself, freeze in fear, unable to act. The battle is fierce but short, and none of us are seriously injured before we banish the beast back to whence it came, kicking and screaming.

After some struggling we manage to open the cabinet. Inside there's a silver platter covered in blood, a nasty-looking skull which Caspar promptly smashes and a serrated dagger we presume was used to kill the boy. There are no tracks and no entrance nearby. After some fruitful searching, we decide to call it quits and go up topside to wash up and sleep.

Conspiracies

The next day, Caspar goes to the best tailor in town and gets confirmation that the handkerchief belongs to Steinhager. Good enough evidence for me! We also discover that the dagger might be from Nuln.

We report back to the magister, who informs us that our mission is now over since one Johannes Taugen, leader of the local merchant guild, reported the goblin found dead in one of his warehouses. Most interesting...

We track the urchins in Schaffenfest. We're told the dead kid went to buy pastries from Hausmann's bakery. We talk to Hausmann, who remembers the urchin being dragged into an alley and talked sternly to by someone wearing the symbol of house Taugen. Rigo goes back to the boys and asks them to keep their ears to the ground.

We're somewhat at a loss as what to do - we're working in the dark without some local contacts. The ruling council is made up of local nobility and traders, with the Verena and Shaela priests working as advisors. Obviously, the council is led by Steinhager...By Sigmar, I prefer demons over dealing with the politics and treachery of nobility!