COPS & ROBBERS

[Viking Bastard]

Introduction

(If you don't give a rat's behind about my campaign world you can just skip this and the next posts).

The theme of my current campaign is that the players play cops in my technocracy/steampunkish kinda world. Since I and my group are all Icelandic, this was all originally played in Icelandic. All the names are the same with just maybe with different spelling because I wanted the pronounciation to come out right in english. City names like Serpent City and Iron City are direct translation and both sound much better in Icelandic.

The setting is a city named Serpent City. It is placed in the western continent of the world, which was first settled about 700 years ago by humans from the then-all-powerful Kentaarian Empire (that's sometime in the 11th century of the Kentaarian calendar). Before that the only sentinent races in the continent were gnomes and orcs. At first, both the gnomes and the orcs neither liked these new strange invaders and tried everything to stop them. The gnomes quickly changed suits after the Kentaarian army crushed and enslaved the whole orc civilization in one strike. Instead, they greeted the strangers with open arms, glad to be rid of those pesky orcs who had been tormenting them for milleniums.

Serpent City was the first city to be founded by humans in the new world, although back then it was named Forkwood City, after the neighbourhood woods. It was built from stone taken from the mountain ranges west of the city called Shadow Mountains. The spooky name comes the fact that the rocks the mountains mainly consist off are completely black. Therefor, Serpent City is nearly all completey black too.

About 400 years ago some gnome miners discovered a mysterious new blue-ish alloy in the southern mountains of the continent. The gnomes named it Thunderstone because of it's explosive qualities. The gnomes, who are known tinkers, were able to create such things as gunpowder and explosion combustion engines from this magical substance. Big markets formed around thunderstone products. When this thunderstone tech was combined with the age old human magic disciplines named Rune-Smithing (kinda lowpower magic item creation) by the tinkers of the gnome city Harrgard, such things as wargolems (big metallic warmachines, not always humanoid in form) and aircruisers (flying ships) were created which completely revelutionized the world's way of warfare and travelling.

When the aircruisers became the main tool of travel and trade in the world, the spires were built in many of the main trade cities. Colossal towers often up to 250-350 metres in height. They function as both multilevel docking stations and warehouses and as gigantic market places. The biggest one of them all is the the Serpent which is located in the centre of Serpent City (the city gets it current name from the contruct). Like the rest of the city the Serpent is made from completely black stone, except for the huge silver dragon statue that sits upon the top of the spire and circles it’s tail around the spire all the way down (a long tail, that). The idea is that the dragon sits upon it’s treasure (the treasure being the spire and all the riches it holds).

But the denizes of the western lands were not so happy, because all the profits from the thunderstone went straight to the Kentaarian Emperor. One day Lord Julius Dracani and his followers of New Leiteinscheir, a city south of Serpent City and east of Thunderstone Mountains revolted against the Empire. In the course of the following year all of the Kentaarian colonies except for Gromnburg (a city north of Shadow Mountain) joined Lord Dracani in the war. The war lasted for nearly a decade, or until the old Emperor died and his son took over, who thought that the war wasn't going be won and it would be better just to let them go. And so the western world got freedom to do whatever it wanted.

Some of the southern colonies joined New Leitenscheir into the Dracani Dynasty, ruled by King Julius Dracani I and some of the northern ones (like Serpent City) followed King Kerak, but most remained independant. But Kerak quickly came corrupted by the power and craved for more, so he raised an army and marched south. Kerak's war efforts did though not go well and lost all his followers outside of Serpent City. Then he confiscated the Serpent City's Merchant Guild's aircruiser fleet to aid him in his war efforts. This decision backfired on him though because without the fleet, the guild went out of business, this didn't exactly sit well with the guildmasters so they revolted against Kerak and chopped his head off on the palace's balconies. Now the Merchant Guild controlled Serpent City and they later founded the Union of Free Cities (usually just called 'the free cities' or 'the union') with some of the neighbourhood cities (all of which are now controlled by the guild).

The Guild is lead by a counsil of eight Guildmasters which are elected for life by guild members (which are mainly the rich people, seeing that how awfully high the entrance fee is). Non-guild members (which consist of nearly everyone) have very little rights against guild members. Still, life in the union is pretty good for most people as long as they don't get guild members against them. There are no taxes in the free cities since the guild gets all the neccasery funding from the rates they charge guild members.
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[Viking Bastard]

The city is divided into wards, the further you go away from the spire the poorer the wards get.

• Surrounding the Serpent is the Merchant's Ward, which consists mostly of warehouses, but also holds the Guild's headquarters and the City Guard's main barracks.
• North of the Merchant's Ward is the Industrial Ward. Here you can find everything from a upperclass blacksmith's workshop to a big steampunkish factory.[/i]
• South of the Merchant's Ward you find the Upper Ward. The ward is the home to the most of the city's rich folk and bureocrats. [/i]
• Beyound the Industrial Ward, you find the Western-, Northern- and Eastern Worker's Wards. Here you find the normal middle class people of the usual city professions (workers, housewives, smiths, experts, thiefs, prostitutes etc.) living their lives.[/i]
• South of the Upper Ward there lie the Scholar's Ward and the Bard's Ward. The Scholar's Ward is a place of wisdom and teaching, there you find schools and libraries and clubs where people talk about the finer things in life and foreign poetry. The Bard's Ward is on the other hand a place of entertainment: theaters, street art and upper class harlots. [/i]
• Closest to the city walls are the Lower Wards: The poor man's home and the center of most criminal organizations in the city. The people who live there are frowned at by the rest of the city and it return the population of the Lower Wards frown back. [/i]

The City Guard are Serpent City's police force and the closest the city has to an army. The only actual uniform they wear are special red capes (which are issued by the Guild). This has resulted in their nickname: The Red Capes' or just Capes'. It is lead by the Dux. The position in currently held by Jareck Frost, an old fat and bad-tempered fellow. The capes' job is to fight crimes which may...

• ...make the Guild loose money.[/i]
• ...inconvience the members of the guild.[/i]
• ...trouble the non-guild citezens of the union so they won't start questioning their current rulership because the Guild doesn't really have any army to fight a possible rebellion.[/i]

The standard money unit in the world is the Silver Crown (equals one standard D&D gold piece), which then divides into 100 Cents (equals one standard D&D copper piece).

 

[Viking Bastard]

Incognito Blackshadow (PC, Human Fighter 1 / Wizard 3)

Picture of Incognito

Incognito comes from a long line of capes. His mother died of birthing him and he was his parents' only child. His father never married again. His father, which loved him very much wanted his son to become something greater than a cape so he saved all his life for enough money to send his son to mage school in the old world, which he did and Icognito was sent to the faraway city of Calhara when he was twelve. Although he never really enjoyed his time in the school, he studied hard for his father. When he was nineteen his father was murdered by the serial killer called the Red Wizard. The Red Wizard was then killed by one of his father's fellow officers, Carp, but on his deathbed the Red Wizard promised he would return saying to Sergeant Carp: "Your death will be the door opened that will let me complete my task." After this Incognito returned home and joined the City Guard in to ensure that the Red Wizard would never return. He has been in the City Guard for two years.

Incocnito is very honourable and takes great pride in his work. He is loyal to his friends and loved
ones. He does not always agree with his superiours and the Guild, but he does not let it be in the way of doing his job. Incognito tends to be rather stubborn and sometimes looses control of his temper and sometimes in these rages he does things he later regrets. He feels some guilt of joining the capes since it's not what his father wanted.

Incognito is about 172 cm tall, medium built. He has short dark hair and green eyes. He is not very strong, but healthy. He wears leather armour and the city guard standard red cape and carries a pistol and a shortsword.


Stickler (PC, Human Rogue 4) and Kurk (PC, Orc Fighter 4)

Picture of Stickler

Picture of Kurk

(Made most sense to describe them together).

Stickler and Kurk grew up together on the streets of Serpent City's lower wards, stealing food and money to support themselves. Neither one of them ever knew their parents. They originally were protected by an older human boy named Jon, but he was killed by Grunt, the leader of the Brothers of Grunt bandit group when he tried to pickpocket him. Jon was eighteen at the time but Stickler and Kurk were both just twelve. Years later they heard that the capes had an unofficial war against the Brothers of Grunt so they joined the City Guardm wanting their share of Grunt's head. At first the City Guard didn't want/let them to join, because of their not-so-clean background but finally one of the capes, Sergeant Carp, supported their application and they joined.

Stickler is not the serious type. He tends to make fun at everything and just can't comprehend why his partners aren't always amused. Kurk likes the finer things in life, like crushing people with a good club. He's not the intelligent type. He's very impatient and cracks easily under pressure (which usually results in him waving his axe around a lot. They're both a bit greedy but very loyal to their friends which are their only family.

Stickler is short, only about 165 cm tall and is lightly built. He has short dirty blonde hair and grey eyes. He usually wears a black shirt and panths and the standard city guard red cape. He is armed with a pistol, a shortsword and a dagger. Kurk is tall, over 180 cm and is heavily built. He wears studded leather and the standard city guard red cape. He is sometimes armed with a waraxe and sometimes an greatsword, depending on his mood. He usually doesn't use firearms but is very cabable with one if so is needed.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Act 1 – And So the Games Begin

The rulers of the Union of Free cities have been concerned with recent raids on air shipments of Thunderstone coming from Iron City, so they sent their best Red Cape (Sergeant Carp of the city guard) to investigate and his team (the players)

Picture of Sergeant Carp

Sergeant Carp and the players went aboard an aircruiser - shipping thunderstone from Iron City - in hope it would be attacked.  They  were about to loose hope in that it would when a big metallic cruiser comes out of the clouds and fires harpoons at the ship. They hit and they draw the cargo cruiser to them.  Orc and human pirates start boarding the ship.  They start slaughtering the guards and pillaging the ship like pirates tend to do.

Then they see Sergeant Carp.  They stop, obviously not expecting any Red Capes aboard.  An one eared orc, wearing chainmail and a black cloak steps aboard, he seems to be the leader.  They recognise him as Grunt, the leader and founder of the Brothers of Grunt bandit group.

Picture of Grunt

"Ah, Sergeant Carp." He says, "It would seem that you owe me an ear." He signals his men to attack.

Sergeant Carp goes into his pocket and gets himself a cigar.  He lights it.  "Boys... it's time to kick some bandit ass."

There are about twenty of them while the capes are only four, the players and Carp.

There are about twenty of The pirates form a wall protecting Grunt.  Sergeant Carp attacks rushes into the 'wall' with a pistol in one arm and a rapier in the other: "Shiver scum!"  He quickly takes out two of the bandits.  Incognito casts Sleep and takes five out. Stickler and Kurk rush at the pirates in a fit of rage, since Grunt killed their mentor and good friend.  Kurk easily kills three of them in couple of rounds.  Stickler isn't doing as good though and takes two hits.  Incognito casts Sleep again and takes another four.

Grunt sees that he's not on the winning side and flees with the rest of his force back onto his ship.   He quickly cuts the ropes holding the ships together and puts full power to the engines.  Sergeant Carp calls to the captain of the cargo cruiser: "After them!"   Kurk literally jumps after Grunt's ship and grabs onto one of the harpoon ropes and hangs on the side of the cruiser.  Grunt's ship is obviously much faster then the cargo cruiser and the space between the two vessels gets wider by every second. 

Kurk climbs aboard the enemy vessel and is greeted by two human thugs.  Kurk slices the head of one of them in one blow and stabs the other one in the gut.  He then turns his attention to the chief, Grunt.  Grunt grabs an axe and prepares to defend himself.  Kurk strikes but Grunt dodges the blow with ease.  Kurk strikes again but Grunt parries and lands a blow into Kurk's arm.  Grunt then kicks Kurk's blade out of his hands.  Kurk grabs a nearby bucket and throws it at Grunt.  Grunt slices it in half in mid air.  Grunt kicks Kurk in the chest, Kurk falls backwards.  Grunt waits for Kurk to stand up and when he does, Grunt kick him again in the chest.  This time, Kurk doesn't fall down, but fumbles backwards all the way to the right side of the ship.  Kurk tries to grab Grunt by the neck with his bare hands, but Grunt is stronger and pushes him over the side and off the ship.  Kurk falls down but Incognito casts Levitate on him and levitates him aboard the cargo cruiser.  Grunt turns to Carp and the players and makes some insulting gestures.

“Rats.”  Sergeant Carp watches the pirate vessel disappear into the distance.  “Shake the bodies,  see who are dead and who are just sleeping.  Then tie the sleepy heads up.  We need to get the location of their base out of someone of them.”

There turn out to be a total of nine sleepers. The players take one of them and after some “suggestions” he tells them that the base is located in an old abandoned Kentaari stronghold just west of the great stone mines in the Shadow Mountains, deep into the fog.  The party agrees on going back to Serpent City, get rid of the prisoners, get some rest and get some backup before they head over to the stronghold.

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Grunt steps out of his ship infuriated.  Scarran the gnome does in deed think twice before he asks his master: “How did it go?”

Picture of Scarran the Gnome

Grunt grabs him by the left shoulder and looks straight into his face. “How did it go?” He hisses, “How did it go?!  The bloody creep, Sergeant Carp was there!  He took down sixteen of my men!”

“Erm... yes sir, I see, the boss wishes to see you.”

“Tell him he can find me in my quarters, I wish to see him too.  He promised me the capes wouldn’t be a problem.”  He stared into the wall for a second.  “And bring me something to eat.”

“Yes sir.”

 

[Viking Bastard]

Act 2 – Carp strikes back

The next day the party heads over to Shadow Mountains with a raiding party of twelve well armed men aboard a City Guard aircruiser (notably known by the red sails and the big twin cannons standing out of the front).  After four hour of cruising over plains and woodland the ship sails deep into the Shadow Mountains, beyond the mines and into the thick fog.  After cruising straight ahead for a couple of minutes the fear of sailing straight into the rocky hills has nearly made them turn around.  Those plans are abandoned when they see a strong blue light source in the distance.

 “A guidance beacon,  Harrgard design.”  Sergeant Carp’s voice becomes the one of a scholar,  “You can tell by the blue flames that it’s powered by thunderstone.”

As they come nearer the light, the ancient stronghold starts to come into sight out of the fog, the blue beacon shines in the rock above.  It  built into the mountain side out of light grey stone bricks, in strong contrast to the dark black rock that surrounds it.  The Kentaaris obviously didn’t trust the native building material so they brought their own.  Grunt’s ship is docked next to one of the two gigantic ground cannons which are located at either side of the base.

“But what shall we do now?” Incognito asks his superior with a hint of sarcasm, “Do we just burst through the door and kill everything that moves?”

“Sounds like a plan.  Arm the cannons!”  The sergeant tells the captain to stop before they come into sight of the bandits and signals the players to come and talk with him.  He points at the two ground cannons.  “On shot from either of those cannons are enough to take down the ship.  The ship’s cannons can take one out but not both before either of them shoots.  We need to get rid of one first.  Do you understand?”

They do understand.  “Yes sir!” Stickler says.  They arm themselves, two pistols, two grenades and a shotgun (the shotgun only hold one shot) and whatever melee weapon they usually use (Incognito grabs his rapier, Stickler his short sword and Kurk gets himself an new axe, since he lost his greatsword in the battle with Grunt).  They climb down from the ship to a path in the mountain side which leads directly to the stronghold.  They run after the path about 2/3 of the way and sneak as quietly as they can the rest.  Finally, when they get to the stronghold, Stickler sneaks onto the small dock with a grenade in each hand.  He hears some voices and quickly jumps behind some boxes.

“I don’t understand what they need all this thunderstone for,”  It’s a whiny squeaky voice. It sounds like it has done it’s fair share of complaining through the years, “I mean, we’ve stolen enough to blow up half the Serpent for God’s sake!  And now the capes are on to use, this job has become way too high profile for me ye know.”

“Sixteen good lads went down yesterday.”  Another voice, much deeper.  “Pity.”  It sounds as it had done it’s fair share of following orders without any thought put into distractions like ‘why?’ or ‘what for?’,  “Of course da boss probably has a good reason for all of this.”

“Then why doesn’t he share it with us then?  I mean, I’d really like to know what I’m risking my neck for! ”

“But Scarran, if he told us we could talk.”  The voice becomes little more serious, like a parent preaching the dangers of smoking to it’s child, “And we’d not like that, would we Scarran?”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve made your point.  Man the cannon won’t you, old Bink said he saw something move in the fog.  It’s probably nothing, you know how he is, we can all remember the incident last year.”

“Yeah, we lost a lot of good men then.”

 “It’s hard to trust his eyesight after that ye know, but I’m not taking any chances after yesterday.  I’m going down to the kitchen to get mister Grunt something to eat now, I can trust you.”  That last part wasn’t really a question.

Stickler hears the one called Scarran walk away, opening a door and closing it loudly behind him.  He takes a look over the boxes, he sees a large orc.  He’s wearing studded leather and holds a war hammer in one hand.  He seems to be counting the fingers of the other hand out loud.

“One, two, three... erm... four and... eh... six... no that’s not right... five! Yup, that’s it! I wonder how many my other hand has...”

Stickler tries to signal Incognito and Kurk: “Pssst, get over here.”

“Who is that?!”  The orc jumps to full alertness, “Are you in the box?!!”  He takes his warhammer and swings it at the box which splinters into hundred bits.  “No, you’re behind box!”  He swings his warhammer again, now at Stickler who just barely dodges the blow.

“Crap!”  Stickler grabs both his pistols and shoots the orc who falls down on his face dead with two bullets in his chest.

The noise of the double blast was loud and didn’t go unnoticed.

 “What’s that?!” can be heard from a distance.

“Probably just old Bink shooting himself in the foot again.”

“We’d probably just check anyway though.  If not Scarran will be angry.”

Incognito and Kurk come running up to Stickler.  Kurk kicks Stickler, “Stupid!”

 

[Viking Bastard]

An orc and a human come running with weapons ready around the corner, when they see the party the human calls for help while the orc attacks Kurk who easily dodges and slices the thug’s right arm off.  Incognito shoots the human who dies instantly.  Kurk then finishes the orc off.

Each of them takes one grenade and throws it at the cannon then they run for shelter.  The cannon blows up with some very neat firework displays.  A large group of thugs comes and following them is Grunt and a very scruffy looking gnome.

“You again!”  He turns to the gnome, ”Scarran, if they are here, Carp is here.  Find him and kill him!  Understood?!”

“Yes sir.”  The same squeaky voice as before.  “I’ll send some lads to guard the other cannon.”

‘BOOM!’

Scarran literally jumps up in the air, “What was that?!”

“That would be the other cannon.”  Incognito says grinning.

The City Guard ship sails into sight, out of the fog.

“Damn!”  Grunt does not look happy.  “Abandon the base, salvage what you can.  I’m going to alert him.”

“What shall I do with them?”

Grunt answers just as he disappears into the stronghold:  “Kill them.”

‘BOOM’  The City Guards shoot again, this time aiming at the pirate cruiser. The ship blows up in a ball of fire and smoke just a dozen meters or so from the players.  The shockwave and flying debris knocks many of the bandits and Kurk off their feet.

Stickler is the first to act and grabs his shotgun and shoots one of the bandit’s head off.  Kurk stands up and then slices and dices like only he can do properly and Incognito once again casts sleep and takes some of the bandits out that way.  But they are easily outnumbered and all three take many hits.  It looks like they are going down when Sergeant Carp and the capes come and start slashing through the ranks of bandits.  The bandits don’t last very long.  A few of them have the brains to give up, including Scarran.

“I would have expected more resistance, than this,”  Sergeant Carp says with a I-have-a-bad-feeling-about-this kind of look on his face, “The place is practically empty!  Just these couple of bandits and not even any loot.”

Kurk grabs Scarran by the neck and lifts him off his feet.  “Where did Grunt go?!!”

Scarran’s face goes white.  “They went through the caves under the stronghold.  They lead to the other two ships, where we keep all the loot.”

“Grunt to?”

“Grunt, the Boss and most of the lads.”

“Da boss? Who’s dat?”

“I don’t know, important guy, talks with a Serpent City accent.”

“His name.”

“I don’t know his name, he and Grunt didn’t take the chance if I talked!”

Kurk throws Scarran away, who produces a little scream.

Sergeant Carp takes some men and goes and searches those caves, when they find the second dock, everybody is long gone.

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The Dux is a short bald tubby man, who likes his cigars big and his employees obedient.  Therefore he doesn’t really like Sergeant Carp, although he must admit people like him have their uses.  “Carp, get your ass in here!”

“Dux.”  Carp walks into the Dux’s office not expecting two people.  “Guildmaster Qter, for what do we owe this pleasure?”

Picture of Guildmaster Qter

“The guildmaster here came to offer me some information.  Grunt and his hoodlums are no problem of ours now.”

“He is always our problem.  Has been so for years.”

“He is gone, over the border over to the Dracani Dynasty, he is now their problem.”

“And how exactly do we know this?”

The guildmaster decides to join the debate.  “The guild council has had reliable word of this.”  Qter is the youngest of the guildmasters, also the only bachelor.  The most sought after bachelor in the city.  Tall, dark and handsome.  “Very reliable.  I doubt Grunt will show himself again in the city, he doesn’t sound that stupid.”

“Yeah Carp, forget him.  I have a new case for you, some psycho self proclaimed wannabe witch hunter is killing women down in the lower wards. I want you and your boys checking that out later tonight.  Ok?”

Although Carp didn’t like it he agreed. 

 

[Viking Bastard]

Act 3 – Terror In Little Gromnburg

Someone has been going on a killing spree down in the lower wards. He claims to be a professional witch-hunter, bent on freeing the empire of the witch pest. The ones who have been killed until now have mostly been fortune tellers, the mentally ill, immigrants from faraway lands and other people who have stood out in any way. Usually the City Guard doesn't meddle in the affairs of the lower wards as the locals don't care for their help (or anybody else's). But the last victim was the apprentice of a very influential Calharian wizard who was in the city for business. Therefore it is now the business of the red capes.

While everybody the party interrogates seems to be ready to tell them that that the killer is "A bloody nutcase!" or "A wacko, missing some serious screws!", nobody is prepared to tell them anything of any importance. One of the major unwritten rules of this part of town is 'That nobody talk to the capes!'. The only valuable information they get is that he is from Gromnburg.

Gromnburg is a very small and until recently, isolated society located northwest of Shadow Mountains. They are highly religious and very superstitious. Witch hunting and burning is a national pass time. They were aware of the outside world, but it was of no importance to them. Evil and sinful lands, one of those things that happened to other people. When the people of the western continent revolted against the Kentaarian Emperor, Gromnburg was the only colony that still supported the Empire. For a decade the people of Gromnburg fought by the side of the Kentaarian army against the other colonies.

But then the old Emperor died and his son took over, who thought that this never ending war wasn't worth it, the crumbling empire simply didn't afford it. So the Kentaarians left the western continent, abandoning all it's colonies, including Gromnburg. Now they found themselves alone in a big country full of people that they didn't like and that definately didn't like them. The people of Gromnburg felt cheated and went back to their lands in shame, closed off their borders and isolated themselves even further from the outside world. This isolation has only fuelled their beliefs that outsiders are wicked and evil and sinful, and that at least half of them are witches.

It wasn't until about ten years ago that they were forced to return from isolation after a natural disaster made a big lump of the country uninhabitable. Not only are they now force to buy food and goods from outer sources, but hundreds of Gromnburgian have been forced to relocate to the neighbourhood towns and cities. It was all the fault of them witches, they say.

When one needs to find someone native to Gromnburg, one always talks to Leeta Townsbuckle who knows every Gromnburgian in town. Leeta is a big woman. Not only physically, but in thought and attitude. When the Gromnburgians started flooding into Serpent City all needing jobs that just weren't there she started her own business. 'Leeta and Co.' makes everything from clothes to cheap furniture and even weapons. Everything she manufactures is made by hand by Gromnburgians. She even runs a very successful 'escort' service. Some would say she uses the poor saps but she would say herself that she 'exploits' them. She says it sound more classy.

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The party finds Leeta down in the lower wards, paying salaries to her workers outside one of her furniture factories.

Picture of Leeta Townsbuckle

Nobody has ever said that Leeta is a easy woman to handle. "What do ya want capes?"

"Information." Sergeant Carp has never really liked Leeta or her business and spits it out. "We hear this witch hunter fellow is from Gromnburg."

"I don't make a habit of talking to ye pigs and ya know it."

Kurk, who does not like Leeta's attitude grabs his axe and waves it around. "Talk woman! Or I make you talk!"

Leeta just laughs at Kurk. "Please, save it. I have fifty strong men inside this warehouse. Ya wouldn't stand a chance."

"You'd be surprised."

Sergeant Carp isn't about to just give up and walk away. "Can 20 crowns change anything?"

"I have no need for yer money cape!" She stops to think for a while. "One thing ya can do."

"Oh?"

"Some tweeb killed one of my girls! Hangs out in the old church over in the Little Gromnburg district. The girls say he's a witch, but they think every other man and his dog are witches. Probably just some sicko. Anyway, I sent some of the boys over to wack him, but he beat them all up very badly and ripped the head very cleanly off one of them. They say he seemed to enjoy the brawl very much."

"And you expect us to take care of him?"

"Well, yer all are trained to deal with this kinda crap ain't ya? If ye want to know where to find the witch hunter, ye find this sod first!"

Stickler joins the conversation. "You are aware that the with hunter might start preying on your folk to?"

"He doesn't kill Gromnburgians, this guy does. If ya don't want to, then just sod off!"

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They come to the conclusion that they don't really have much choice. Still, Carp decides to go and follow up on some other leads, old contacts while he sends the party over to Little Gromnburg to check out the old church and if they see any witches doing anything illegal.

 

[Viking Bastard]

When the immigrants from Gromnburg first arrived they took over an practically abandoned part of town formerly known as the Burnt District (originally it was known as the Harrgard district as the Gnomes of Harrgard ran a gunpowder factory there, but after a rather nasty accident involving one of the factory workers, a hot cup of coffe and a torch, the factory blew up and took the whole district with it. After that it became the home of all the homeless people that even the scum of the other Lower Wards didn't want). The Gromnburgians started by burning all the bums, beggars and other homeless people (even though officially the Merchant Guild frowned at that event, they never did anything about it since they were in reality acctually rather happy about getting rid of those social problems once and for all) and then they tore the whole district down and rebuilt it.Now, Little Gromnburg is probably the cleanest place of the lower wards. It's also the only part of the city that's built out of wood in any real volume, the Gromnburgians believe that black stone is the sign of corruption of the devil.

The old church is the only building that the Little Gromnburg locals didn't tear down, seeing that even if it was built by the corrupt foreigners it was still the house of God. They don't use it though, and built their own church a couple of blocks away.

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When the party enters Little Gromnburg they are greeted by nothing but hostility. "Go back to yer home witches!" People just stand in the distance and stare at them, some mumbling prayers or exorcism, but most just hurl curses at them. "Ya can't corrupt us ye filthy pigs!"

Stickler just finds this rather laughable. "Maybe we should go away from this place before they grab the torches and hayforks. It's the kinda thing they'd do."

Someone screams, a woman's voice. "Nooo! My baby!! The witch's got my baby!" A hysterical young woman runs in the party's direction. "Somebody help me!!" She crumbles down into the muddy street crying. "Somebody... ::sob:: took my baby..." A crowd starts to form in a circle around her, all staring, but none offers aid.

The party makes it's way through the crowd and Incognito helps her up. "Who took your baby?"

"The witch... ::sob:: ...in the old church. I...I told her not to play in front of the church... ::sob:: ...but she did it anyway, like someone had put a spell on her... then... he came out and grabbed her... ::sob:: "

"He?"

"..the witch! I've seen him before, he lives in the church I think..." Suddenly she realizes that the players are not of her kin. "Ye all are not one of us! Corrupt pigs!"

Incognito slaps the woman who falls back down into the muddy street. "We pigs are the only ones who seem to be willing to save your girl, so watch it!" He grabs his pistol and turns to Kurk and Stickler, "Are you ready guys?"

Kurk kicks open the front doors of the old church and they storm in.

 

[Viking Bastard]

The church is big and majestic. Nearly 25 meters from floor to ceiling, all made from black stone. There used to be six big mosaic windows on either side of the church, but now they are all broken and have been replaced by bits of wood. This results that the only light inside the church comes from the broken entrance. The church has been stripped of everything of any real value ages ago, long before the Gromnburgians came. There's nothing there but dust and spider webs, and lots of both. Even the church benches have been taken away. The only thing left is the stone altar and that's just because it's too heavy.
From the other end of the church a faint crying can be heard, "mommy... ::sob::" The little girl sits on the altar, hugging her knees.

As they walk closer to the girl they hear a dark, snakelike voice: "Who's there? Looks like we have some friends over to play with." A young pale fellow, wearing a long brown leather trench coat, levitates a couple of meters over the altar. They could've sworn he wasn't there a second ago. "And they're capes too, what do I owe this pleasure?"

Incognito points his pistol at the pale stranger. "We are not about to let you harm the girl. Give up or be annihilated."

"Oh, your little toys can't harm me, and no worries, I have no intentions to harm my little prodigy."

"You're a vampire aren't you?" Stickler asks.

"Some might call me so, I see myself as one who is blessed by the shadows."

Incognito suddenly realizes that something is wrong with what the vampire said: "Prodigy? What do you mean by that?"

"I see it as my task to spread the shadow's blessing."

"Yeah, whatever." Incognito fires at the vampire. He hits, but the bullet just goes straight through him without effecting him in any way.

"Oh darn, you holed my coat! Now I have to kill you." He starts laughing loudly. "I'm a bit thirsty actually, I've gotten a bit tired of all this Gromnburgian blood lately, all this paranoia clearly affects the taste."

After some quick brainstorming Incognito yells to the others: "Tear down the windows!" Kurk and Stickler run to either side of the church and start hacking through the wood that covers them. After they tear through the first two windows, beams of light strike the vampire who screams an inhuman scream and falls down to the floor.

In no time they have opened all the 12 windows and the church is flooding with sunlight. The screams of the vampire have stopped, but he seems not to have been killed, there are tracks in the dust leading to the staircase that leads up to the tower.

Incognito grabs the little girl and runs outside while Kurk and Stickler run up the staircase after the vampire.

Incognito gets greeted by a big crowd of people armed with torches and hayforks. A tall skinny guy waves a shovel at him: "Put the girl down ya freak!!" Incognito puts the girl down who runs to her mother and puts her arms around her neck.

"Mommy, the sun burns..."

The shovel waving skinny guy turns to the mob: "This building may once have been a house of the lord, but now it is infested by spawns of the shadows! We must destroy it and all it's evils with it!!"

Kurk and Stickler run up the stairs after the vampire, when they're about halfway up they see the vampire lying in the staircase badly burned, the smell of his burning flesh is absolutely repulsive. At first they think that the vampire is dead but it starts to speak: "You bastards! You repulsive puny cattle! You make me sick!"

"Yeah? Says da corpse." Kurk prepares to chop it's head off, but the vampire is faster and grabs the axe.

At the same time they hear some commotion down stairs. "Light it now!" Sounds like an angry mob.

Stickler gets nervous. "You think they are gonna burn the place down?"

"How? There's nothing here to burn, it's all just stone." Kurk answers Stickler as he wrestles the axe out of the hands of the vampire.

The vampire kicks Stickler in the stomach and Stickler falls down the stairs, landing harshly at the bottom. Kurk chops the vampire's right hand off, who flees further up the stairs and Kurk follows. When Stickler gets back on his feet he sees some basic decoration changes, the whole floor has been covered in oil and five barrels of gunpowder have been placed middle of the room. He screams at his brother: "Kurk, they may not be able to burn the place down, but they sure can blow it up!! The place is loaded with gunpowder. Lets get the hell out of here!"

Kurk catches up with the vampire at the top of the stair, not able to go any further up because of the sunlight that shines through the broken windows in the top room. The vampire is helpless, Kurk blocks it way down and the sunshine blocks it's way up. It's goes into a frenzy and leaps at Kurk, who wrestles it down with ease. He gets a good hold of it and draws the vampire with him to the old bell room (lacking any kind of church bell now, somebody pinched it years ago). The vampire kicks and tries to bite Kurk, but Kurk is stronger. It starts to burn as Kurk forces it into the light. It screams in pain.

"Fry bastard!" Kurk throws the vampire out the window. It bursts into flames and then explodes halfway down. Only ash lands on the ground.

Meanwhile somebody throws a torch through one of the windows on the ground floor. Stickler quickly throws it back out, but three other torches get thrown in and ignites the oil on the floor. Stickler runs over to the staircase and screams: "Kurk, get your butt down here, it's about to blow!"

Kurk runs down the stairs as fast as he can. When he gets down every inch of the floor and the gunpowder barrels are burning. The two brothers run out like hell through the fire and smoke. Someone has barricaded the doors so they jump out one of the windows. When they're out they just run as hell away as the church goes up in a gigantic blue fireball.

"Sh*t!"

They go and reunite with Incognito who is being held by the angry mob.

"Burn demons, in hell! All of ye!" It's the shovel guy again.

Kurk goes berserk and waves his axe threatingly around: "Shuddup!! Just bloody shudder all of you filthy superstitious paranoid bunch of wankers!!! Release my friend or I chop the head of every last one of you and feed it to my demonic half fiend cat!!!"

The shovel guy takes a couple of steps back and releases Incognito who walks over to his fellow party members. "I didn't know you had a cat?"

"I don't. Lets get the hell out of here!"

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They go back to Leeta who gives them the identity of the witch hunter, who turns out to be some chap named Gerald who lives in the Mad Cow Inn over in the eastern worker's ward. A certified nutcase she says.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Act 4 – To Witch or Not to Witch

Mad Cow Inn is the biggest Inn in Serpent City, located in the Merchant’s Guild’s old headquarters (before they moved over to the king’s palace).  It’s a five storey building with 68 rooms and about 50 employees.

The owner, old Turk is an ex-cape.  He is old and fat now, but once upon a time he was the City Guard’s finest.  He was also Carp’s mentor.

“How are you doing mate, are those your new boys, eh?”

“Hi old dog, we’re looking for one of your tenants, a Gromnburgian named Gerald, does it ring any bells?”

“Aye, a spooky chap.  He only comes here every couple of days, but he pays for his room so I’m not complaining.  What did he do?”

“Ever heard of the witch hunter that has been killing people down in the lower wards?”

“Aye, the one who snuffed that wizard’s apprentice?  There are not  many things that escape my ear.”

“We think that’s him.”

Turk gives them the key and number to Gerald’s room and Carp sends them up the check it out while he and Turk catch up on old times.

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The room is full of witch hunting weapons.  Swords, stakes, crossbows and silver pointed bolts, couple of buckets of garlic, crosses, holy scriptures, a dozen unused torches, oil, gunpowder (but strangely  no guns) et cetera.  The walls is covered in holy symbol and the words “ARE THEE CORRUPTED SHALT THEE BURN” have been carved into the northern wall in capital letters.

After searching the room they find some newspaper clips about old Guildmaster Beramix’s death and Ztorialim’s, the Merchant’s Guild’s most powerful sage, upcoming crowning as his replacement, which is scheduled for tomorrow night. 

Like his father, Icognito has the mind of a detective.  “I think he is planning to do something at the crowning.”

“What? Kill Ztorialim?”

“I believe so, we must tell the Sergeant.”  They run down to the lobby and show Carp their findings.

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The night comes and everybody is getting ready for the crowning.  People running around organizing the palace’s great hall.  The players just stand in the middle of the hall, looking rather sheepish as pretty much everyone else on the Guild’s payroll redesign the whole place.  Sergeant Carp is over in the far end of the hall ordering some other capes around.

He turns around and walks over to the players.  “Ok, it’s best that the three of you will be here next to the stage.  Nobody except Ztorialim and the priest and their disciplines are allowed to step onto that stage is that clear?” 

The players nod in agreement.

“Good.”  Carp goes on.  “I’ve placed two guards on the balconies, one on each side, and one guard at each door, I wanted more but Ztorialim didn’t want to hear anything of it.”  He shakes his head in dismay.  “I tried to explain to him the seriousness of the situation, but I don’t think he realizes it. He doesn’t seem the least worried. But at least the rest of the palace and the neighbourhood is swarming in capes.  Hopefully if Gerald decides to come, he won’t get near this room.”  He waves his arms around.  “Anyway, start to get cosy, the ceremony starts in an hour or two, be on guard so that witchhunter freak won’t just sneak in.  We have nearly no idea how he even looks like.”