Session 1: You All Meet Outside a Tavern

Störtebeker, Bögenhafen... Must be Warhammer.

The first session of the campaign started with our three characters just outside "Coach and Horses", a coaching inn on the Delberz-Altdorf road. Holger and Günther had been traveling together for a while, disillusioned with their lot in life and looking for something new and profitable. Grimgrim the (grumpy) dwarf just happened to be traveling in the same general direction.

The fact that we started our first proper session with only 3 out of 4 players present was due to real-life scheduling issues. And I knew that adding Errindel the Seer to the party would not be an issue: his visions would eventually guide him to the right place at the right time. Gotta love seers.

Seeking shelter from the rain, the characters entered the coaching inn. While there, they noticed a job offer: Crown Prince Hergard von Tasseninck was looking for bold adventurers (but not dwarves- eliciting a profound "meh" from Grimgrim the Dwarf). Altdorf was not that far away...

Smoothly, the characters interacted with the other patrons at the inn. Or actually, they mostly invested their remaining coins on some food and beer, and a warm place to sleep. It looked to be an early night in. Not that the other patrons were exactly looking for company: Lady Isolde von Strudeldorf looked down her nose at the rabble, a student was preparing for his physician's test in Altdorf, and two coachmen were getting uproariosly drunk.

There was a Rainman-esque moment when a Bretonnian gambler named Philippe Descartes challenged the characters to a friendly game of cards. Günther, the supernumerate former exciseman, gladly took the poor gambler's money.

For the next morning, the characters arranged a coach ride onward to Altdorf. The hungover coachmen caused a delay, and when it was finally time to leave, it became apparent that there was no room in the coach itself (also, lady von Strudeldorf does not travel with common folk, thank you very much!). The characters traveled on the roof of the coach, miserable in the rain (except for Grimgrim, who was busy going through lady von Strudeldorf's luggage).

A couple of hours later, the journey was interrupted. Squatting by the side of the road there was a human figure, his back to the coach, bent over the body of a Four Seasons coachman. The figure turned around, and to their horror the adventurers saw a severed human hand hanging out of the the creature's mouth. The thing was human, but abhorrent to behold - it's flesh was hanging in shreds and green ichor seeped from it's eyes.

Walburga was especially shocked, for she knew the mutant. It had once been a fellow militiaman named Rolf, who had suffered from a strange skin condition. Now not much remained of the man she once knew.

Rolf the mutant rushed towards the coach slashing with it's bloody dagger. The horses panicked and bolted, snapping the reins as they did so. One of the coachmen was pulled off the coach and dragged across the ground. The coach came to an abrupt halt, and the mutant attacked!

The mutant was quickly dispatched. One mutant against both Walburga and Grimgrim was a lopsided fight to begin with. From further around the corner, a bestial cry could be heard. The characters went out to investigate.

Another coach was lying across the road, with two horses desperately trying to struggle free. Four more mutants were at the scene. One was hacking at the horses maniacally with an axe, another with cloven feet was feasting on the body of a small child, and a human with a dog-like head was screaming and holding it's leg while another mutant with a pointed head was trying to bandage said leg.

The characters managed to surprise the mutants, and a melee ensued. Another mutant was behind the coach, and started firing at the characters with a crossbow, but after the characters took down two of the mutants, it ran off into the woods.

The fight was short and bloody, but our adventuring heroes did not suffer any major injuries. After the mutants had been taken care of, the characters found a body lying nearby. Shockingly, the corpse looked exactly like Günther! After searching the body, the characters found a letter.

The body belonged to one Kastor Lieberung, and apparently he was the sole heir to a faraway baronet, and entitled to the sum of 20000 Gold Crowns. Did I mention that he looked exactly like our hero Günther Konrad?

Suddenly and unexpectedly, Grimgrim, always a dwarf of action, smashed the real Herr Lieberung's head right in! This was easily the most violent moment of the session, shocking everybody, including Surkis.

Shock, horror, meh.

Lieberung's body was quickly dumped wayside and covered with leaves. The party continued onwards to the Empire's capital, Altdorf. Just after dark, the coach arrived at the capital's main square, the Königsplatz.

In the hustle and bustle of the Königsplatz, a peculiar thing happened. Günther was approached by two men. While one of them watched the crowd, the other scratched his left ear with the little finger of his right hand, all the while staring hard at Günther. This was repeated a number of times, leaving Günther rather befuddled. After a while, the two men looked relieved, and hurried over to a nearby doorway, where a stocky man was standing. All three went through the doorway and closed the door behind them. At the Königsplatz, three characters were left to wonder what the hell was that all about. After that, the adventurers found an inn, and settled in for the night.

The following day the party discovered that Prince von Tasseninck had already departed for the Grey Mountains. Not that it mattered much, Günther et al had bigger fish to fry.

On the streets of Altdorf, the characters by chance happened to meet one Josef Quartjin, a friend of Grimgrim's. This chance encounter led to a few drinks at a nearby tavern, which led to a few drinks in the next one, and so on... After a few drinks, Josef also offered the characters a job: he needed guards/stevedores for his boat on his trip to Bögenhafen. The party was going to go there anyway to meet the lawyers ("Lock, Stöck & Bärl") who sent the letter to the original Lieberung, so they quickly said yes.

While drinking away the night, a tall, gaunt character all dressed in black arrived at the same establisment as the characters. This was one Max Ernst, a moody bastard looking for a fight. Josef knew the guy, and told that it would be best to stay clear of him.

After a while, two young nobles also arrived, and started a drinking competition. The competition ended with one of them throwing up on on Günther. The nobles found this riotously funny. Seething, the characters tried to stay calm - attacking a bunch of nobles and their bodyguards could get very ugly very quickly.

At this point, Max Ernst started to insult the characters in earnest. Günther and Walburga were rightly incensed, and things got physical. Josef and Grimgrim watched from the sidelines as Ernst embarrassed the two heroes: both suffered minor injuries to go with the ignominy of defeat. Ernst left the bar after the brief scuffle, leaving Günther and Walburga to collect themselves from the floor of the tavern. Günther plotted vengeance ("Once I get my 20000 GCs, that bastard will pay!"). The nobles also departed, laughing loudly.

After the fight, the characters and Josef headed for Josef's barge. Along the way, the characters became aware that they were being followed. Grimgrim, the least drunk member of the party, decided to hang back and hide in an alleyway, while the rest of our heroes continued onwards to the boat.

Grimgrim saw that two men were following the characters, and recognized them as the weird double act from the Königsplatz. Lying in wait, Grimgrim also saw them taken down: one of them fell down as a crossbow bolt slammed into his back, and when the other one turned to look back, another bolt struck, aimed straight at the man's throat. Whoever shot the bolts vanished into the darkness.

Grimgrim looted the bodies, as is his m.o., and while doing so, noticed a small tattoo on both of the two men, located on the right breast. The tattoo depicted a purple hand.

With the adventurers arriving at Josef's barge, the session ended. Next up: trip to Bögenhafen.