The Enemy Within

[doghead]

I played this so long ago I can't remember any of this so far. I don't even remember my character. I do remember an elven duellist, but he was in the Doomstone series.

But I do remember it was a really good series. I also came a really good time in our gaming, we were beginning to experiment with the idea that the characters, while they all worked together, were not all of one mind on all things. Its not a particularly novel concept now, but at the time it was, at least for us, an interesting departure from the all for one and one for all style we had played thus far.

Looking forward to finding out what happens again.

doghead
aka thotd

 

[Sanzuo]

Sorry, I've been putting off the update for a while because we haven't gotten a session in so far this week. I might be getting a new player and it's hard getting everyone together.

I've got another post coming up though, you'll see it within the hour.

 

[Sanzuo]

After an encounter with a group of Roadwardens who had apparently heard of the attack somehow, the party repaired their coach once again and continued on their way. Late that evening they finally arrived at the Inn of the Seven Spokes. The party had some much needed rest and left for Altdorf the next day.

They arrived at Altdorf's famous Königplatz and said goodbye to the coachmen. (Actually, Hargin said something like “remember, you owe us...”) Agents from various inns around the area came at them trying to gain their patronage. Lau decided to play with them a little and organized a dancing contest to gain the party's favor.

While this was going on, Klaus noticed two men staring at him. They appeared to be artisans and one of them was doing something odd. He scratched his left ear with his right hand. Then repeated the gesture several times. Klaus tried repeating the signal, but it did not satisfy the man. Klaus tried something else, but the man grew more frustrated. Just then the two of them seemed to notice something and ran to a nearby house. Klaus saw them enter with a stocky, ominous-looking man and close the door behind them.

The incident was strange but the others didn't care, they shook the inn agents and sought out the residence of Prince Von Tasseninck to see if he would hire them for his expedition. Lau held an impromptu quiz contest with the crowd. One passerby answered the question correctly and his prize was to show the party around the capital. The party was led to the local residence of Prince Von Tasseninck, however they learned there that the Prince was no longer hiring and had already left for his expedition the previous day.

The party was dejected, but all was not lost. They still had a goal – Klaus “Kastor Lieberung” Altman's inheritance in the town of Bögenhafen. They decided to spend their time in the Imperial capital hocking their loot they've acquired so far. Klaus chose to buy some more respectable clothing for a man of his stature and Hargin bought more even more armor. Hargin was now wearing full leather underneath full chain mail underneath full plate mail covering his whole body - making him even more difficult to injure.

While shopping, the group happened to run into another old acquaintance of Lau's – Josef Quartjin, a boatman. Josef was a friendly fellow and offered to take the party to Bögenhafen on his barge as he happened to be going in the same direction with a shipment of wine. He then takes the party to an inn for drinks and dinner.

At the Boatman Inn, the party drank and celebrated until a mysterious man dressed from the neck down in leather armor entered late in the evening. He claimed a table from another group of patrons and began drinking. Josef identified him as Max Ernst, an infamous protagonist. Soon after, a pair of nobles and their four bodyguards entered. The nobles began to talk down to the patrons of the inn and harass the party in particular. Eventually one of them vomited beer on Lau (who was in the middle of one of his stories.)

As Lau moped in the corner, Max approached him and began picking a fight. At first no one reacted, then the man in black knocked Lau on his back and laughed at him. Hargin got out of his chair and buried his axe in Max's back. Max managed to turn around and draw his sword before Hargin and Klaus came down upon him and killed him on the bar room floor. The rest of the patrons (including the nobles) started applauding.

Lau picked up Max Ernst's severed arm and hurled it at one of the nobles in retaliation. It smacked the noble right in the face. The noble was drunk and hardly noticed, however. The two nobles then left the inn with their bodyguards after having their evening's entertainment.

The party then decided it was time to leave and spend the night on Josef's barge. On their way to the barge in the night, Lau realized the party was being followed. He grabbed his bow and drew an arrow in the direction he sensed their followers.

The two men that revealed themselves turned out to be the artisans from earlier in the day that tried to get Klaus' attention. One of them was about to speak when a crossbow bolt hit him in the back from the darkness. The other turned and was hit by another crossbow bolt right in between the eyes. Both strangers lay dead and the party stood dumbfounded.

That didn't last long, however. The party grabbed the corpses and looted them. They happened to find that both the men had tattoos on the right side of their chests that looked like purple hands. The pondered about this only briefly as they tossed the bodies in the river.

That night on the barge they slept like babies.