Episode 18: Altdorf Is Weird. Let's Leave. Report

General Summary

The Enemy Within: Enemy in Shadows Episode 18 - “Altdorf Is Weird. Let’s Leave.” 7/10/2020 Post-Game Notes   Day 70 - Marktag, 22 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Picks up in the evening, arriving at the Seven Spokes

• 
  Crew caught in the middle of a sibling dispute as the Road Captain, Magnus Pflaster, is trying to convince his sister Anida, who had been traveling north, that it is unsafe and she needs to return home. But Karl is unconscious and needs a doktor...
• Godabert tries to smooth things over with some well-timed coins in Anida’s palm, and then some sympathetic conversation with the Captain. The Doktor tends to Karl.
• Meanwhile the other road wardens start drinking, along with Gunnar and Hultz; Lady Isolde’s party makes other arrangements for travel to Altdorf and orders dinner; Phillipe tries to convince a party of adventurers that had been drinking with Doktor Anida that they might like to play cards…
• Beau and Kris attempt to shmooze some favor from Lady Isolde’s party. The bodyguard, Charlotte, sees to it that their meals and drink are paid for.

Godabert spends some time with Anida and her adventurous friends (who, it turns out, are headed to Altdorf and not to Middenheim as Anida claimed in front of her brother). There’s a jovial human lad named Werner, a scowling woman named Wanda, a mischievously smiling girl named Kirsten, and a late-arriving halfling (after blowing up one of the outhouses), named Harbull.   Two Morrite Doomsayers arrive to tend to the corpses. One elderly priest named Manheim and a young initiate named Binroy confer with Captain Pflaster before he retires (begrudgingly without convincing his sister to abandon her trip to Middenheim) and then prepare the bodies in the courtyard for either burning (mutants) or transport to a Morr’s garden (the humans).

• Beau heads outside for a chat with Manheim, and after the promise of a few drinks, Manheim joins him inside. Binroy can handle the rest.
• Manheim tells Beau, Kris, and Karl about the crow-post trick to garner Morr’s blessing and cleanse one’s spirit.
• When Binroy returns to the table he sees Karl and does a double-take…

  Day 71 - Backertag, 23 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Seven Spokes to Altdorf

• Coach leaves late, as the drivers are hungover again. Turns out Lady Isolde booked passage on a Four Seasons coach headed to Altdorf.
• In a comic shuffle, the Crew witnesses the four adventurers from last night jump out of a northbound coach, and jump into that southbound Four Seasons coach. According to Harbull, “that nice doktor” paid them to pretend they were accompanying her to Middenheim.
• They finally get on the road, and under fair skies, pull into Altdorf in the late afternoon.

Crew gets dropped off in the busy Konigsplatz

• Beau’s pounding headache kicks in immediately
• God’s hairs seems to have changed color: it’s now reddish-blond
• Amid much fanfare and commotion from the crowd, the Emperor parades through the Platz with his massive retinue

After things settle down, two curious men approach Karl and one makes a strange gesture to him repeatedly

• When Karl approaches, they start to back up nervously, seeming very confused
• Suddenly a stocky figure in a doorway across the Platz signals to them and the two fellows run off to meet him. Stocky guy slams the door.
• Crew investigates. The door is unlocked and opens to a courtyard connecting various apartments and artisan studios.
• Beau follows a trail to a second-floor apartment that belongs to a cheesemonger named Dieter. He’s friendly enough, and offers them some cheese, but the trail was a dead-end.

Crew returns to blacksmith they met a few days ago, Carl, and Kris buys a new mail coat. God leaves his leather jerkin behind for repairs (pick up tomorrow afternoon).   Crew makes a visit to an apothecary but leaves without buying anything.   On their way back through the mercantile district, they run into Josef Quartjin, the merchant trader they saved from goblins outside of Blutroch a week ago. He offers them drinks at the Boatman Inn, his favorite haunt along the docks.   Along the way the Crew is accosted by a crazed preacher who reaches out for Karl, stops short, and then unloads an ominous prophecy… before dropping dead on the street.   Boatman Inn is a dockside tavern with river-side patio and a hot landlady:

• Josef shares Schaffenfest flier and his personal theories about why they’re moving to an autumn festival, why city-folk are crazy, and how weird things are happening at the Colleges of Magic.
• Offers them a job crewing the Berebeli to Bogenhafen where he’ll be selling wine. 2 shillings/day; room & board on the boat included. Crew agrees.
• A scowling black-leathered man named Max enters the bar, demands a bottle of brandy, and then sits by himself at a table near the Crew.
• Two slumming upper-crust toffs come in with their bodyguards and, after being delighted by all the “smelly oicks,” start a game of brandy bounce (gulps of brandy followed by jumping until one of them pukes).
• Godabert leaves to see about his leather armor, since Josef insists they need to set sail in the morning.
• Some brandy “bounces” out of Jacob’s gullet onto Kris’s pantleg. Josef tries to keep the Crew from doing something rash.
• Max antagonizes the Crew and calls them country yokels; Beau and Kris take the bait and double-team him. Kris takes a mean shot to the pelvis, but a good comebacker spins Max around right into Beau’s swinging chair.
• After Max hits the ground, the locals cheer, and a group of four of them drag his body outside.
• Godabert gets his repaired armor back, compensates Carl accordingly, and then makes a pit stop to a Ranaldan statue to make an offering. What a good Ranaldan he is.

Josef and the Crew are leaving just as Godabert re-joins. They’re walking down the dock when Beau’s headache kicks into high-gear, despite the booze, and Karl picks up the distinct footfall of pursuers.

• Crew scopes out a hiding/ambush spot below one of the street-level stairways and they see two men -- the two men who were acting strangely in the Konigplatz earlier today -- stop at the dock landing. They’ve lost sight of the Crew.
• Seconds later, the two are cut down by crossbow bolts, and tumble down the stairs.
• Crew waits a few minutes to ensure that the coast is clear before checking the bodies. They each have a dagger, some loose coins, and a strange purple hand tattooed on their chests.

On the Berebeli, Josef gives the Crew a tour and introduces them to Wolmar (who they also saved on the Blutroch road) and his wife Gilda.

• Gilda is bandaging up Wolmar’s head; looks like he had an eventful night as well.

Day 72 - Bezahltag, 24 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Leaving Altdorf via the Weissbruck Canal

• Josef brings news from the docks early in the morning: one of those nobles was killed last night at the Black Bull, and the Crew is under suspicion. They need to leave now.
• Crew unmoors the barge and they set sail through the Reiksport. Josef uncorks a bottle of wine and starts his tourguide speech as they make for the mouth of the Weissbruck Canal.
• Beau’s hair has turned from silver to black. He looks ten years younger, the devil.
• Trip to Bogenhafen should take from 9-10 days. Get comfortable, lads, and maybe learn a little something.

  Interlude:   Josef returns to the Berebeli conspicuously red-faced and absent the two bottles of Reikland Red that had been tucked under his arm when he first disembarked to greet the lock-keeper. It isn’t evident whether or not the courtesy, combined with the two-gold fee, expedited the lock crew’s efforts to move the barge into the great canal. But Josef, for his part, seems to have enjoyed the transaction.   “Always be nice to your lock-keepers, lads, and they’ll be nice to you.” Josef claps a big meaty hand on Kris’s back, who has suddenly been tasked with guiding the massive bark betwixt the lock channels.   “Josef… how wide is the Berebeli?” Kris’s eyes are fixed ahead where the canal narrows as it creeps up into the Skaag Hills. In the distance a small barge is being towed by a team of horses on the frontage path, its captain scowling back at Josef’s massive vessel.   “She’s a mighty boat is she not?” Josef pats his doublet, looking for a pipe or perhaps a spare bottle of grog.   “Yes but how wide is she?” Kris is now aware of one of lock-hands on the weir smirking and shaking his head side to side.   “Twenty-two feet from port to starboard!”   “Aaaand how wide is the canal?”   “Twenty-five feet of fine dwarven engineering. You can bet your last penny that there’s not an inch of discrepancy from Lethov all the way to Weissbruck.”   “What the hell Josef.” Kris grins and gives the lock-hand the finger.   Josef, keenly aware of his deckhand’s apprehension, places a calming arm around Kris’s shoulder. “Now of course it’s twice as wide at the locks, and at certain berthing points. They’ll have passing paths dug up in a few years too. But, in the meantime…”   “In the meantime, we’re going to piss off a lot of people.”   “Smile and wave m’boy! Smile and wave!” Josef does just that.   * * *  

Rewards Granted

XP:

• 5 pts for mediating the sibling tension (God)
• 5 pts for hitting it off with Father Manheim (Beau)
• 5 pts for not attacking the nobles
• 5 pts for dealing with Max (10 pts to Kris and Beau)
• 5 pts for finding the “crossing finger” statue/shrine (God)
• 5 pts for collectively and stealthily giving the stalkers the slip
• 10 pts for securing passage and employment along the Berebeli
• 25 pts for a swell session

• Godabert: 60
• Beau: 60
• Karl: 50
• Kris: 55

Loot:

• Two daggers (dead bodies)
• 3 shilling, 19 pennies (dead bodies)

Character(s) interacted with

Locations scouted and new NPC’s engaged:   Seven Spokes, along the Altdorf-Middenheim Road

• Doktor Anida Pflaster, physician
• Father Manheim, Morrite Doomsayer
• Binroy, Morrite initiate
• Werner, carpenter and adventurer
• Harbull Furfoot, herbalist and adventurer
• Wanda, wizard’s apprentice and adventurer
• Kirsten, adventurer

Konigsplatz, Altdorf

• Dieter Käsegeier, cheesemonger
• Carl Schmeid, blacksmith and armorer

Boatman Inn, Altdorf

• Max Ernst, Protagonist
• Una Mühlmauer, Landlady
• Jacob von Katzenreik, noble
• Georg von Ostbrun, noble

The Berebeli, Altdorf docks

• Wolmar Lochen, merchant
• Gilda Lochen, his wife