There's not really much talk of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay on these boards and I love reading these journals, so I'd thought I'd throw up a Journal from our sessions. We're playing second edition, everyone who plays also collects a warhammer fantasy army so they all know the world. I am DMing and I'm the only one who doesn't have an army but I've read the books. Having an extensive world that everyone 'gets' and 'knows' to just jump into really helped roleplaying.
This is our first time playing WHFRP So I'm running an adventure from the books with slight alterations, moving toward more and more homebrew as we get comfortable.
The Party
Larenthar - Elven Envoy
Ulrich – Human Bounty Hunter
Wolfgang – Human Horse Coper
Magnar – Dwarven Miner
Grundi – Dwarven Toll Collector
Party Background
The trade Caravan had been together for a few months, consisting of an Elven Envoy, Human Bounty Hunter, Human Horse Coper, Dwarven Miner and Dwarven Toll Keeper. The envoy is a merchant by trade, a friendly face and a bowman when it comes to self defence. The bounty hunter travels as protection for the convoy as he’d be travelling anyway on his job and picks up the occasional bounty on his travels. The horse coper is a Kiselv and does not speak Riekspiel (the areas common-tongue); supplied horses and a cart as well being responsible for keeping the horses healthy. He also trades in steeds and mounts when the opportunity arrives. The Miner / Prospector drives the cart as he is the most skilled in this, he also lends a talented eye to appraising and evaluating goods, a prospector and miner by trade himself and being a dwarf he’s a dab hand with his two handed greatpick. The Toll collector is a book keeper, tracking the convoy’s gold, expenditure and investments. He picked up fighting with a military pick and shield protecting his tolls before joining up and as such is a welcome addition. He’s reasonably well educated and travelled also so he’s the only member of the convoy able to translate for the Kislev Horse Coper, as he speaks Khazalid, Riekspiel and Kislevite.
The ‘
Storm of Chaos’ as it’s known is a large war that has recently ravaged the lands. The war has just ended but the devastation is still being managed. The main forces of chaos defeated there are still large roving warbands, now leaderless, roaming the lands.
The First Session
The Convoy has recently stopped over in Untergard (in Middenland) for a few days. Untergard was host to a large scale, nine day long battle over the Bridge of Untergard. A highly important location as it’s the only bridge for many miles. Beastmen occupied the east of the city, human survivors occupied the west. The battle was hard fought and eventually the beastmen were driven away. There are 75 survivors of the battle, who are all hungry, tired and in recovery. The four main citizens are, Watch Captain Gerhard Schiller, Granny Moescher (town wisewoman), Hans Baumer (woodsman) & Father Dietrich (priest of Sigmar, replacement from Altdorf, newest resident).
The Convoy have hit pretty hard times, though the toll collector has a small fortune pocketed away (50gc), they have barely anything to sell and the lands have been perilous at late. Stopping in Untergard for a few days has allowed them to rest and consider the safest route to a trading hub, the bounty hunter also has had word of an Imperial Deserter somewhere nearby and is keeping an eye out.
A few days after entering Untergard they’ve been staying at the town tavern (which still has a meagre supply of food and the dwarves brought their own kegs of ale). A commotion outside stirs them from idle conversation and planning, moving outside to investigate they move towards the crowd of people gathering in the Ackerplatz (town square).
The bounty hunter, Ulrich, moves through the crowd and asks someone who looks informed and loose lipped what’s going on, he discovers that Captain Schiller will be making an announcement soon, regarding a letter from Middenheim sent by Lord Todbringer.
The group also overhear several rumours from the crowd, except for the horse coper, Wolfgang as he doesn’t speak Riekspiel.
“Granny Moescher’s house was untouched during the fighting.”
“Tilean mercenaries lost their payment in the river and there’s a chest of gold down there for any brave enough to go diving.”
“Drakwald forest is still full of beastmen and stragglers left over from chaos armies”
“Father Dietrich possesses a Holy Relic”
Captain Schiller stands on a soapbox to give a speech to the assembled, announcing the letter praising the town of Untergard for the battle of Untergard Bridge, due to it’s strategic importance and a delivery of fresh bread and wine. Much rejoicing is had by the crowd, until the bottle is shot, exploding wine all over the Watch Captain. The bounty hunter works out the shot came from across the river in a ruined building, then everyone notices the six advancing mutants, running over the bridge at full force.
On mutant is horned and furred, one has the face of a boar, one has three eyes, one has a tentacle whip for an arm, one looks normal from a distance and the last has three arms. The mutants are armed with clubs, except the three armed mutant who wielded two swords and a shield. The crowd panics, fleeing to the safety of buildings, as they run the party hear things shouted in panic.
“we’re all doomed!” “It must have been a hochland, only way to shoot that far” “there must be snipers everywhere!” “some of those mutants look familiar…” “We’ll be murdered in our beds!”
The convoy are used to defending themselves, like seasoned travellers they hold and reach for ranged weapons as the mutants sprint and the crowd makes way. Shots are fired, none manage to hit their moving targets. The Kislev, Wolfgang, lacking ranged weaponry readies his whip and steps forward to meet his foe, the dwarven miner, Magnar readies his greatpick, and hunkers down defensively. Watch Captain Gerhard also joins the convoy, annoyed at the waste of wine, and his men too injured or too slow to get into positions, he readies a sword and shield.
The first mutant charges the Wolfgang, who attempts to whip the mutant which doesn’t quite connect. The three armed mutant then severs Wolfgang’s head from his shoulders killing him instantly. *First roll of the combat, first combat of the campaign, Ulric’s fury for 26 damage on a PC with 12 wounds*
A Fate point is spent.
The flat of the poor quality blade strikes the horse coper in the neck, a sickening crack is heard and Wolfgang loses consciousness...
Blows rain back and forth, all switch to melee except the Larenthar who fires into melee with elven accuracy. Grundi switches to Military Pick and Shield and goes toe-to-toe with two mutants, in a defensive guarded stance.
Magnar wastes no time and makes quick work of the normal looking mutant, who up close is lacking a mouth, as he does he realises the mutants belly is home to a mouth larger than a human head, downing the mutant Magnar swings the pick into its “throat” piercing the heart.
Ulrich and Captain Schiller fight 2-on-2 with mutants, as not to be outnumbered, holding their own. As a third mutant joins the fight so does Magnar, in glorious fashion with his charge he slams his pick into the creatures face, it falls to the floor dead, but twitching. This ‘avenges’ Wolfgang.
Meanwhile Larenthar has filled the tentacled mutant Grundi is fighting with arrows, but it still stands. Grundi blocks all attacks that seem like they might connect with his shield, not hitting back with much accuracy but blocking the onslaught as if he were a Shieldbreaker.
Magnar breaks from the combat as suddenly as he joined it, moving to help his Dwarven comrade, driving his pick into the horned mutant’s spine, killing it instantly but getting his pick stuck in the process. Larenthar shoots the tentacle mutant in the nose, ending its existence.
The Watch Captain and Ulrich both score chest hits with their swords in their 2-on-2 fight, stabbing their opponents in the lungs. One mutant dies instantly from shock, the other falls to a knee, wheezing through his pigsnout. Grundi takes offense to the mutant’s refusal to die and charges it, crushing its hand with his pick’s blunt side, forcing it to drop the club. Larenthar has a similar idea, lodging an arrow through the mutant’s throat.
And thus endth the first session, We ended early as it was a short session because of the Olympics at the moment. I felt really bad for Wolfgang’s player as I didn’t let him do the gossip check due to not speaking the right language, and then I Ulric’s furied him with my first attack. Effectively making it so he didn’t really get to do anything the whole session. The player enjoyed the new system but obviously would prefer playing if his character was conscious… he’ll be picking up the shield from the mutant’s corpse for survivability.
Magnar loves impact and got pretty lucky with Ulric’s fury.
Players enjoyed the speed of WHFRP compared to DND. We’re all new to the system but combat flowed seamlessly. The same combat in DND which we’re all fluent with would have taken longer.
The Second Session
Grundi drops down to Wolfgang, covering him partly with the shield but mostly checking on his wounds. On the bodies of the mutants they find mostly ripped clothing, rusty blades and makeshift clubs... only the shield seems salvagable so they collect it and set the bodies up to be burned beneath the bridge. Ulrich, Magnar and Larenthar then decide to cross the bridge, scout the area and see if they can find the rifleman, they stay low to avoid being shot.
A member of the watch informs Grundi and Captain Schiller that there was a similar attack on the front gates and a couple watchmen died but they fought off the attackers. The watchman says he will fetch the priest to tend to Captain Schiller's wounds. Grundi asks the watchman where the priest is and discovers shockingly, the priest is in the temple, giving prayer to those who found shelter there. Grundi then picks up Woldgang and heads to the temple. Upon arriving the watchman informs the priest about the captain and the priest makes to leave. Grundi protests but fails a charm test. The Priest sighs and has a space cleared for Wolfgang but leaves to tend to Captain Schiller.
Across the bridge the three scouts get to the abandoned building Ulrich is almost certain the shot came from, they move inside carefully and begin to search the rubble. They come across a patch of disturbed dirt, probably where the shooter lay. Ulrich assesses the shot, it must have been a long rifle, and it was not a bad shot, to have only missed by a yard at such extreme range...even outside of a long rifles normal effective range.
Back at the temple Granny Moescher notices Grundi and Wolfgang, offering to heal Wolfgang Grundi lets her tend to his fallen comrade. She rubs oils into his neck and straightens it, making a splint/neckbrace from wood and bandages. It'll need to say on for (d5) 3 weeks and reduces move speed by one and agility by 5%. As this happens there is commotion and people grab weapons, moving to the front gate, murmuring of another attack. Grundi goes to investigate and discovers the woodsman Hans Brauer, feared dead, coming back from his excursion into the drakwald with survivors/refugees. They head to the Tavern, Grundi collects Wolfgang on the way as he's now concious and can walk...carefully.
Ulrich, Magnar and Larenthar come back over the bridge to see the captain being tended to by father Dietrich. They speak to them both when another watchman comes to inform them of Hans return and that he requested to speak to Captain Schiller at the tavern as soon as he could manage. The three accompany him to the tavern and the party is no longer split, yay!
Hans informs the town he found evidence that 200+ beastmen are heading this way on a rampage, it's likely a splinter from a bigger defeated force, riled up by the storm of chaos. Hans suggests the town packs up, runs to Middenheim and returns with imperial troops and tradesmen to repair and reinforce the city. Father Dietrich wants to stay and fight for the land, to hold the bridge and not suffer the mutants existance.
The party talk amongst themselves and decide if the townspeople flee they will escort them, if the townspeople fight they will fight alongside them. Ulrich voices a preference to standing and fighting, like true men of Sigmar, to the entire Tavern. This pleases Dietrich.
Captain Schiller finally weighs in on the arguement, compliments both sides for their virtues but notes... there are only 85 souls left... including women and children, they are too outnumbered and his military experiance suggests the bridge will be overwhelmed. He decides the town should flee tomorrow morning and return to reclaim their homes in force.
The party buy supplies for the trip... food is of poor quality and expensive due to there not being much to spare. In the morning the town has fit everything into hand luggage or 3 Oxen Carts. The party set up their cart behind the town's convoy.
Travel was dreary on the first day. Grundi had to scavenge food from the nearby woods and just about found enough nuts and berries for himself on a day by day basis. Granny Moescher also went missing shortly after mid-day. Captain Schiller urged the party to find her and ensure her safety.
Ulrich found some tracks leading into the woods that could have been Granny's so they followed them. After ten minutes of walking into the Drakenwald they came to a clearing, looking ahead they see Granny with a fistful of weeds or herbs and three Elven archers, all with their sights on Granny.
As they party step forward they are told to introduce themselves, they do and state that Granny is part of their caravan. The elves look dubious... they explain that they've been hunting down stragglers from chaos warbands in the drakwald and a human gathering herbs alone is obviously a witch. Larenthar steps forward, pointing out the old woman is a healer and cares for the village's orphans. The Elven warriors lower their bows, the leader speaking out in Elven.
"If an Elf vouches for this Human then we will defer to you, you are responsible for this one now."
They return to the convoy, with Granny explaining what herbs and plants she needed to make balms for the sick and wounded in the convoy.
On the second day the convoy was stopped by wreckage in the road. The convoy hangs back whilst a few guard, the party and captain Schiller investigate. As they get closer to the scene they realise what they're looking at; corpses ransacked, torn apart and bitten, wagons looted and set fire to, Greenskin ambush. The party makes willpower tests to avoid an insanity point after seeing such carnage. Father Dietrich comes forward and makes the sign of the hammer on himself, suggesting the folks deserve at least a proper burial. Captain Schiller agrees and notes that the women and children in their own convoy doesn't need to see what happened to this trade caravan. they gather the bodies to the side of the road and the dwarves help dig pits whilst the humans carry bodies and clear the wreckage out the road. Larenthar looks to the woods, in case of further ambush.
As Father Dietrich administers last rites, moving from body to body he steps on unsecure ground and it gives way, the party hear a wet thud and scramble to investigate the earth that swallowed the priest. Ulrich is first to reach the shallow pit trap, where Dietrich has fallen onto the spikes beneath. He's run through by half a dozen spikes and life is escaping him as he reaches out for Ulrich.
"Take this icon... to the church of sigmar... in Middenheim, Swear to me"
Ulrich takes the icon "I swear upon Sigmar's hammer, it will be done"
Satisfied, the priest gives up his hold on life and passes on.
They lift the priest from the trap, not wanting to bury him in a "goblin grave".
Once the bodies are buried and the wreckage moved to the edges of the road the convoy passes. Later that day they pass by the wrecked town of Grimminhagen. The convoy would not be welcome there nor would they accept help if they were offered. Still, Ulrich and Grundi head over to look for supplies unsuccessfully and warn what remains of the town about the oncoming herd. They rejoin the convoy and the next day and night pass uneventfully.
The next morning the party finds Granny Moescher staring at a roadsign with a single crow sat ontop of it, murmuring to herself, but none of the party are close enough to hear what she's saying to herself. The sign points down a disused road to the town of Fahndorf. The convoy moves on and Granny climbs into the Orphan's wagon.
That evening as the convoy slows the Orphans are heard crying. Upon investigation it turns out Granny Moescher is missing again. The oprhans say she wouldn't stop talking about Fahndorf. Then as the Oprhans dozed off for a nap she must have left. Several children say they had weird dreams about a crow.
The party retrace their steps, able to move faster on foot than with the cart at a convoy's pace, at least as fast as an old woman on foot right? After a little while in the distance they think they can see a fire, they reach the roadsign and realise the fire is in the abandoned town and is changing colour, red, blue, orange, green, yellow, violet it shimmers through. They run down the dirt path and the scene comes into view.
Granny is speaking in an unintelligable language, tossing herbs and powders into the fire whilst weaving strange patterns with her hands. Wolves have gathered and they circle the fire.
The party decide that Granny needs to be interupted as soon as possible... before she incites some foul magick. the dwarves charge in, Ulrich readies a crossbow, Wolfgang readies his whip and Larenthar takes aim with his bow, placing an arrow into Granny's chest. She stumbles but does not stop casting, Ulrich's arrow then flies past her not hitting it's mark.
the dwarves are charged by wolves, Wolfgang supports them with his whip, entangling them when he can, making them easier to hit. Ulrich drops his crossbow and wades into the melee, to stop his allies getting outnumbered. Larenthar lets loose more arrows as he's the only hope of bringing Granny the hedgewitch down as the rest are pinned back by wolves.
Granny is downed by an arrow to the face a few rounds into the combat, the shape of a demon manifesting in the fire is lost as it almost becomes real and the fire dies. The wolves are then dispatched and the Kislev searches Granny's body for clues as to what she was doing. When he discovers a book Ulrich, a devout sigmarite, snatches it from Wolfgang, stating it must be handed in to a temple of sigmar or witch hunter's order. They also relieve Granny of her money as she'll have no use for it any longer and place her corpse on the warm pyre, relighting it to burn the witch.
They return to the convoy and eventually manage to convince Captain Schiller of Granny's fate once they show him the occult book; which no one dares to read. The next day people get what sleep they can to make up for the ordeal but are awoken by cheers throughout the convoy. Middenheim is within sight and they'll arrive within the hour, they seem to have passed through the Drakenwald alive... but not altogether unscathed.
