Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stoat" data-source="post: 3946592" data-attributes="member: 16786">WFRPHorst, a smuggler from Wulfenburgheim, and Karl, a charcoal burner from the same village, discover a tattered map on the body of a plague-blown soldier.  Because neither can read, they enlist the aid of Gildiril, a wandering elven scribe.  The scribe has been drawing the attention of a trigger-happy Witch-hunter, and is anxious to leave town before an angry mob burns him at the stake for being (a) literate and (b) an elf.  He tells Horst and Karl that the map leads to a ruined monastery where a buried treasure is hidden.  Anxious to add a little muscle to their ranks, the group hires Snurri, an alcoholic dwarf trollslayer with a four-page backstory detailing a tragic love affair gone horribly awry.The four leave Wulfenburgheim in a driving rain with 4 copper pennies and 3 shillings among them.  They're walking.  In thigh-deep mud.  Outside of town they pass a mass grave filled with plague victims, but wisely choose not to investigate it.Along the way they meet Pieter Eckhart von Szobel, a hooded, cloaked mystic with a wart and a dead eye.  Von Szobel claims to be familiar with the ruins, and tells them of a secret door which hides a valuable ruby.  He offers to accompany the party, but they smell a rat and refuse his help. The group enters the ruins and finds three bow-legged goblins hiding in a cesspit.  The trollslayer screams a battle cry and charges into melee.  Immediately thereafter, a goblin attacks with a rusty cleaver and severs the dwarf's femoral artery.  The trollslayer bleeds to death in the filth two rounds later.  The charcoal burner takes one goblin's arm off at the elbow with a lucky swipe of his hatchet, and is wounded in return.  The smuggler realizes that his career's trappings didn't include any weapons, and he winds up attacking with a rusty cleaver dropped by one of the gobbos.   The scribe retreats out of the chamber.   The second goblin dies when the smuggler shatters its jaw, covering the floor with blood, saliva and broken teeth.  The third goblin retreats, but not before landing a blow that causes the charcoal burner to lose an eye.The smuggler and the scribe find the secret door while the charcoal burner stands dumbly, muttering 'my eye, my eye' over and over.  The smuggler searches the chest within, but rolls a 97 on the relevant test.  This triggers a poison arrow trap, which wounds him.  The smuggler fails his toughness test and dies in agony, bleeding from his eyes.The scribe takes the gem and leads the charcoal burner out of the ruin.    Von Szobel is waiting for them upstairs, this time wearing the eight-pointed star of chaos and carrying a staff with a rotted human head on one end.  The vile sorcerer tries to cast a spell, but rolls triples on the casting test.  Unholy energy courses through his body, and he dies.The charcoal burner buys a wooden eye from a traveling halfling and retires from adventuring.  The scribe attempts to sell the ruby, but is chased out of town by an angry mob who believe he is in league with von Szobel.  He escapes, but exposure to the dungeon filth has caused him to contract a terrible disease.  He dies of the bloody flux in a ditch somewhere on the road to Altdorf.</blockquote>

Verification