Episode 30: The Darkest Hour Report

General Summary

The Enemy Within: Enemy in Shadows Episode 30 - “The Darkest Hour” 9/5/22 Post-Game Notes   Day 85 - Wellentag 3 Brauzeit, 2512 IC   Picks up as the Crew is running down back-alleys and sidestr eets towards Haagen’s Wharf, avoiding the lynch mob coming from the vicinity of the Journey’s End (arson!) and the watch patrols combing the main streets (murder!)   Crew jumps aboard The Berebeli where Josef is in the middle of training two new boathands (“Whoa lads! Where’s the fire?” - lol).

• Meet Dieter Desch, erstwhile grave robber, burgeoning adventurer. Still looks shifty.
• and his pal, Mixo Fuchs, the unemployed coachman (who never relinquished his company-issued blunderbuss).
• Josef explains that he picked up some help in town for his return trip to Altdorf in the morning; these boys are headed to Weissbruck. There’s still room for the Crew if they’re also interested.

Yeah, Josef, sounds great, but first…

• Crew explains the whole framed-for-murder (and possibly arson), imminent demon-summoning shenanigans going down tonight. Dieter and Mixo are in to help and, after Josef vouches for them, the Crew becomes a six-man team.
• Actually, five. Karl needs to hang back and nurse his stevedore-inflicted injuries. He’d like to go one day without almost dying, please.

Night falls, and Morrslieb is more evil and hungry-looking than ever. Thick fog rolls off the river into the streets. The Crew splits into two groups to surveil the two suspected warehouses.

• When the greenish moonlight touches their bare skin, they feel a tingly sensation. Seems fine.

Beau, Dieter, and Mixo head to Warehouse 17, the Ruggbroder warehouse that Josef used to unload the rest of his wine (“Did you hear? Heinrich Steinhager was found dead this morning!”)

• Josef gives the trio a few bottles of biere de garde from his inventory to help sell the idea that Beau and Mixo, now wearing the pilfered pendants, are stevedores.
• Dieter shows off his sneaky skills and infiltrates the warehouse. Seems pretty clear that there isn’t room in there for any ritual. He soon captures the attention of Big Georg, the night watchman, and his guard dogs.
• Beau and Mixo, posing as stevedores, provide a distraction, and Dieter escapes.

Kris and God head to Warehouse 13

• From a vantage point along the docks, Kris uses his Lens of the Sky necklace to check on the warehouse from a distance. Sign indicates that it is a Teugen joint.
• A Steinhager coach soon pulls up, and big Franz, along with three laborers, emerge and enter the warehouse. Two servants are lugging a human-shaped bag. This seems like the place.
• A few more coaches arrive, dropping off indeterminate cultists clutching parcels, all of whom disappear into the warehouse.

Crew scouts the exterior, and determines a point of entry at the rear, second-story. Dieter, boasting about his building-scaling b&e skills grabs a rope and embarasses himself several times trying to gain a foothold.   Teugen, a tall figure who must be “cousin” Gideon, and the stevedore security start to arrive, encircling the warehouse, so the Crew is forced to abandon their plan.   While God, Beau, and Dieter maintain a watch on the warehouse, Kris and Mixo head to the Rusty Anchor to try an recruit some patsies to draw away, at the least, the two stevedores guarding the rear city-side wall of the warehouse.

• Bartender and locals don’t care too much for Kris’s swagger, but Mixo makes some friends at a table full of teamsters.
• For a pocketful of change and some free drinks, Rolf and Immel are more than happy to harass some of those stevedore bastards.

While the Crew waits down an adjoining alleyway, Rolf and Immel work their magic. Sounds of a struggle ensue, and then poor Immel runs down the alley before promptly being mugged by two pursuing stevedores.

• Beau, Kris, and Dieter pop out to make quick work of the stevedores, with some ranged support from God.
• Dieter, clearly red-faced by his inability to show his new friends how well he can climb up the side of a building, beats the living shit out of both stevedores, crushing one guy’s elbow and slicing off the other dude’s jaw. Within seconds, the two thugs are silenced.

Newly emboldened by his combat prowess, Dieter leads the way back to the vacated exterior wall of the warehouse and scurries up the facade like a champ. He pops the shutter, tosses down the rope, and within a few more seconds, the whole crew has entered the second-floor of the warehouse.   The Crew skulks around the second-story storerooms and peeks down the staircase at the scene below:

• Boxes and crates have been moved and stacked in the back to allow room for an eight-pointed star in a copper circle, similar to what they had seen in the sewer temple
• Six red-robed cultists mill about preparing candles at the vertices
• Teugen, robed but un-hooded, sharpens a knife while Gideon, dressed plainly, oversees
• In the center of the circle, hands and feet bound, is a young woman, gagged and struggling listlessly, as if drugged.

Kris directs the guys to gather up loose pallets, boxes, stray wood… anything flammable. They pile it onto Dieter’s tarp and soak everything in his lamp oil.   They creep down the stairs, unseen and undetected by the cultists, Kris and Dieter at the fore with their firebomb picnic trap.   Godabert gets the party started with an arrow into the assembled crowd, striking a hooded cultist. Teugen responds by yelling something in an arcane language and plunging the dagger into the sacrificial girl.   Gideon sheds his human guise and appears as his true self – a multi-armed, pink-fleshed demon rippling with magic, eyeballs, ever-shifting tentacles, and a gaping, fang-filled maw.

• Most of the cultists panic and break rank
• Mixo panics, drops his blunderbuss and runs away
• Beau panics in fear as well, and retreats to the top of the stairs
• Gideon starts channeling pink and blue energies around his fingers

Kris and Dieter give their oiled-garbage tarp a mighty heave and it lands right between the circle and the main dock door, at the front of the warehouse.   Teugen yells to rally his fellow cultists, to some success, while pulling a scroll from a pouch on his belt.   Gideon lets loose with a Blue Fire of Tzeentch that torches Kris and Dieter; both are aflame!

• Dieter rolls around under the banister and puts his fire out.
• Kris, ever eager to showcase his athleticism, somersaults down the stairs, putting his fiery clothes out while simultaneously igniting the tarp trap, and lands right in front of Gideon.

Teugen is reading his scroll.   Godabert cuts down another cultist with an arrow.   Gideon’s right arm transforms into a serrated blade and battle is joined!   Several cultists recover and engage the heroes while Teugen keeps reading, ever louder.   Godabert draws his sword and charges into combat, helping Kris deal with the demon. But every time they seem to cut that guy down… he charges right back.   The front doors fly open, partially aflame, and the stevedores outside are prevented! What a cunning plan!   Teugen KEEPS READING. Beau KEEPS COWERING.   Dieter showcases that brutal sword-stroke once again, cleaving a cultist in the ribs. Morale among the red-robes teeters.   The fire begins to spread, igniting several beams along the front of the warehouse.   Teugen keeps reading, but panic sets in… and after witnessing another fellow cultist go down, and Gideon dropping to one knee after a vicious slash, he screams and runs through the flames onto the dockside street where watch and onlookers have gathered.   Teugen, outside, is heard screaming, asking for “more time!” A flaming, feathered eye opens above him and a disembodied voice intones, “I claim your soul. It was always mine; but you were more useful when you believed you could save it. Now you are needed for other matters…” Inside, Gideon is similarly consumed. The voice tells him, “There is no portal. You have failed. Return to me.” He is burned to nothingness in corsuscating flames.   Beau finds a bit of resolve and helps Godabert grab a still-living cultist, and the Crew amscray out the way they came.   Everyone feels a little more… corrupt… as they tumble out into the fog-filled night.   Interlude:   “Over here! Here!” Mixo calls to the others from a darkened alley behind the warehouse. Behind the heroes, screams of fear intermingle with cries for help and attention. Stevedores, watchmen, and dockside passers-by are seen running up and down the strasse in confusion and alarm.   “You dropped this.” Dieter hands Mixo the blunderbuss with a smirk.   Beau growls something unintelligible yet still frightening into the face of their hostage cultist, who squeals.   “Quiet! Who are you? What’s your name?” Godabert provides a rough translation.   “L-L-Landolf. Landolf Seckbach! What-what’s happening? What was that thing?” The merchant-cultist is still in a state of shock.   “That “thing” was a chaos demon using you idiots to destroy the city.” Kris leans in. “Or something. I don’t know what the fuck demons do.”   “But we suspect you have some ideas.” Godabert picks up the interrogation. “And we think you might be willing to explain what you know to the authorities.”   “We could have him do that…” Kris stares back in the direction of the fiery warehouse, currently getting handled by a bucket brigade. “But how much do we trust the authorities in this town?”   Dieter offers up, “What’s the alternative? Hide out on the boat until morning, and leave with Josef?”   Landolf simpers while the Crew ruminates in hushed silence. * * *

Rewards Granted

XP:

• 5 for the ol’ front-door-distraction ploy (Beau)
• 5 for a trio of well-timed crits (two KO’s and a wall climb) (Dieter)
• 5 for enacting the flaming barricade plan (Kris)
• 5 for the magical arrow that broke Teugen’s will and effectively ended the ritual attempt (God)
• 15 for infiltrating warehouse 13 (God, Kris, Beau, Dieter)
• 15 for minimizing the loss of life by insulating the combat (God, Kris, Beau, Dieter)
• 200 and one Fate Point for preventing the ritual and saving the town (God, Kris, Beau)
• 100 and one Fate Point for supporting the ritual-disruption (Karl, Dieter)

 

• Godabert: 235, one Fate Point
• Beau: 235, one Fate Point
• Karl: 100, one Fate Point
• Kris: 235, one Fate Point
• Dieter: 135, one Fate Point*

*only applicable to the post–Gathering Storm Dieter   Loot:

• Several bottles of Hallt Brewing’s biere de garde

Character(s) interacted with

Locations scouted and new NPC’s engaged:

• Dieter Desch, grave-robber and adventurer-for-hire (PC)
• Mixo Fuchs, coachman and adventurer-for-hire (somewhat cowardly NPC, means well)

Warehouse 17: a Ruggbroder dock-side warehouse Warehouse 13: a Teugen dock-side warehouse

• “Gideon,” a demon of Tzeentch, presumed destroyed
• Landolf Seckbach, local merchant and member of the Ordo’s inner circle