Episode 9: Day of Toil, Night of Blood Report

General Summary

Prequel to The Enemy Within Episode 09 - “Day of Toil, Night of Blood” 10/4/2019 Post-Game Notes   Day 10 (13th day overall; seventh day on the job Marktag, 31 Vorgheim   Crew reports, as requested, to Captain Pfeiffer in the morning.

• See Josef Specht just leaving Pfeiffer’s office as they arrive
• Pfeiffer: good news is, Rudi will live. Still in a coma, and he’s going to lose that right arm, but he should pull through.
• Still no word from Captain Blucher, but a number of his troops that had been supporting the wardens along the canal up north have been recalled. Pfeiffer will make use of them.
• As for you four, seems you’ve become the favorite private detail for Frau Karstadt-Stampf. Report to her estate in the Hill immediately for escort duty. Her purser wants you to go north to her family’s ancestral lands and guide her back to Ubersreik.
• Report back to me on the morning of the 33rd.

Bridge House Inn

• Message from Jekel: “Taking matters into my own hands. Services no longer needed… contract terminated.”
• Crew sends message back to Jekel: “Too bad. We know where she is and we’ll get the book. If you’re still interested, we’ll be in touch. Otherwise, we’ll sell it to the highest bidder.

Karstadt-Stampf Manor

• Offered breakfast and brew by Josef, who explains that this was merely an alibi paid for as a favor to Christophe. Frau Karstadt is home, and has no intention of leaving Ubersreik.
• His investigation into the attempt on Jocelin’s life hasn’t turned up anything yet, other than that the instigation of the riot and murder of Fosten the Fiery is unrelated. Suggests the Crew look into Benedict Gurkenfeld, owner of Theatre Variete regarding their own case.

Dawihafen -- Borgun’s Brewery

• Greeted warmly by Borgun; news that Thurngill is still in bad shape. May not make it.
• Mention of Silverbeard: don’t trust that Harataken thug.
• The air seems… crisp.

Cordelia’s Apothecary to try to gain entrance into Wizard’s Tower for meeting with Christophe

• Crew notices two dirty, shifty travelers skulking about directly opposite the entrance to Cordelia’s. They’re shitty lurkers.
• Crew scares them off
• Cordelia is at the Marketplatz and Ida was just about to head over. Beau sweet-talks her into letting them through the Wizard’s tunnel, but it’s clear Christophe isn’t expecting them.
• Ida flirts with Beau and passes him a parcel of some dried herbs: Valerian, Earthroot, and Spiderleaf
• The wind picks up.

Back to Red Moon Inn

• Drop off stuff before smuggling operation
• Franz tells them that two dwarves came by asking about them; wants reassurances that these are not the guys engaged for the explosive. Thinks they were Silverbeard thugs.
• Are those storm clouds on the horizon?

To Boatsman’s Guild for meeting with Rugger and Christophe; in the upstairs back office, Crew gets the lowdown on the plan.

• Wardens at the gate may be wary that you’re heading upriver so late in the day. Tell them you plan on docking at the riverside inn between here and Flussberg before midnight, trying to gain time for a trip to Tallerhoff.
• If they inspect the deck, Glimbrin will see to it that the hidden hold remains concealed.
• Rugger has ideas about timing; provides the map and explains that the Crew should be within sight of the Flussberg Waystation by 2:00 am. Close enough to ensure the river wardens spot the blaze, but at the end of an evening shift, precluding any immediate assistance.
• Jekel and his crew should be in Flussberg at this time, if their intelligence can be believed, and, if the plan works, they’ll be investigating the wreckage immediately. Before daylight hours this will be difficult, giving you all an opportunity to make it to the north bank, hike up to the north road, and start trekking back to Ubersreik under cover of night.
• Another complication. You’ll be dangerously close to the Duchy of Black Rock. If Jekel is who we think he is, much of his familial support has now fortified themselves in that area. They could have access to soldiers and horses… beyond what Jekel already has hired. It’s a day’s travel back to Ubersreik by foot… and you will have little time to waste.
• The barge is equipped with one rowboat. It has a cracked hull and will take on water immediately once it hits the river. (Crew loves hearing this part of the plan.) You probably have twenty minutes before it’s submerged. The four additional members of your crew may think, at first, to ride the boat back downriver to Ubersreik, but out of necessity they will head to Flussberg. This is important -- it will help spread the misinformation in town. They all will know something of your cargo… and, if we’ve chosen correctly, no one of them is so gallant as to risk his own life to save the girl once the deck is ablaze.

You four, of course, should swim to shore and disappear. Jekel may think you’ve perished at first, and by the time no trace of your bodies has appeared, you should have a nice headstart back to the city.

• Make it past the lock house just north of UR, and you should be in the clear. Jekel probably wouldn’t follow you all the way to the Bogenhafen road.
• Rugger: loaning you two oiled goatskin bags. Christophe has provisioned you with a tinderbox, a canteen, some dried meat, and blankets. There should be room between the two of those to pack a set of dry clothes.
• Christophe interrupts to discuss payment. Keep the bags (“Rugger, I’ll buy you new ones.”) But, since there is no Bretonnian brandy, and you’re now engaged as collaborators and not unwitting pawns in our elaborate ploy, some additional compensation seems appropriate. I am a man of means and influence, but not of overt wealth. What seems reasonable?

PC’s negotiate for:

• 20 GC total;
• a flight of poisons curated by Christophe;
• ranking membership for Kris in the Ubersreik Boatsman’s Guild;
• a private introduction to Sister Celestine of the Temple of Shallya;
• and one additional magic item from Christophe’s party trunk.

The next issue is getting you back into the city tomorrow morning.

• Northern toll house is your best bet. Of all the entrances into the City, this one that connects to Bogenhafen and the upper Sudenvorbergland is the most trafficked and, as a result, the one most likely to be expedited with a prompt payment of the toll.
• Because of everything that’s happened recently, the toll has gone up: expect to pay 18d/leg.
• Christophe: an additional problem. You four are not entirely unrecognizable. If someone picks you out as a member of the Watch, or, even, one of the infamous Wrecking Crew, there might be questions as to what led you north of the city.

Before making haste to the Boatbuilders’ shipyard, Godabert attempts a fortune-telling:

• Rain - Fire - Monster - Victory (but for whom..?)
• Everything seems fine, so off they go.

Oh, and it probably definitely will rain. Nice prognostication work there, God.   At the Boatbuilders’ shipyard Crew runs into Kurt Prochnow, who seems a little surprised (Merchants? City watch? Private security? Who are you guys?). Then the Crew meets the crew -- the poor bastards Rugger and Christophe have hired to help sail the boat upriver in the middle of the night.

• Rufus -- tall, mean-looking young man
• Gerner -- heavy-set, happy fellow with long red hair
• Jonas -- hunched, bald, and fairly old with a weathered face
• Ralf -- lank, sinewy, and oiled black hair under a leather skullcap

Wardens at gate, as expected, question Crew’s late departure. Captain Kris convinces them of their intentions to save time by docking at ferry inn and making it to Tallerhoff before the end of the next day with building supplies. Glimbrin conceals the compartment.   Boat catches a tailwind right out of Tallerhoff, and Kris, aided by the acute hearing of Karl, makes immediate strides as the sun sets over the ruddy Teufel. Ah. Smell that? Smells like freedom, and life! And a thunderstorm. Definitely a thunderstorm. God and Beau on aft oars; Rufus and Ralf on forward oars; Gerner and Jonas on sail rigging.   Kris captains successfully for several hours, aided on occasion when winds swirl by the strength of the oarmen. They pass the Hooded Man riverside inn off the starboard side around 9:30 PM.   At one point, two hours in, Ralf starts acting strange. Not long after, his oar cracks and he is forced to go aft to pull out a new one. He loiters back there overlong, and Beau checks on him: Ralf is standing there with a roped oil lantern rooting about in storage. He gets back to work.   Around 10:00 PM, after making great progress (ahead of schedule), Ralf’s actions become apparent when Godabert smells something burning and sees flames licking up the aft hull.

• Ralf had been stringing lamps along the back of the barge to illuminate its presence, and one of the flames ignited the coal tar smeared on the planks.
• Seconds later a flurry of arrows and bolts fly through the air, thunking into the barge portside. One strikes Rufus in the chest, sending him overboard (presumed dead).
• Kris spots rowboats moving quickly towards the barge from the port side.
• The boat is quickly going up in flames.
• Glimbrin pops out: “It can’t be 2:00 AM already?!” He lights fire to the center of the barge.
• Beau rushed over to Ralf, the saboteur, and maces him into submission. When questioned, the most he reveals is: “You did exactly what Jekel wanted you to do!”
• God attempts to block Gerner from getting to the rowboat. In the process, Gerner catches fire and falls off the back of the barge (presumed dead).
• Jonas angles towards the rowboat, but Glimbrin socks the old man in the nads and climbs over the side himself, into the rowboat.
• Kris and Karl rush towards the rowboat next.
• Godabert hops in after Jonas, struggling to his feet, also catches fire and stumbles overboard (presumed dead).
• Beau, after leaving Ralf with cracked ribs and internal bleeding (presumed dead), is the last to hop into the rowboat. They engage the release, and Kris rows like a champ directly to shore, using the light and bulk of the blazing barge to obscure their actions.

Crew ditches the rowboat and heads up towards the treeline, fighting fatigue and avoiding the road. Plan to follow a path, through the foliage and downriver, back towards the riverside inn. Full on storm now, so finding the dry inn is the priority.

• Strange animal noises in the distance alert the party to a pack of beastman hunting a wild stag. Someone shouts in alarm, and a shadowy pack of snarling beastmen, silhouetted by the distant lightning, turn their attention towards new prey.
• Glimbrin hops onto Kris’s (strong) back, and the Crew runs like hell through the underbrush.
• They manage to put enough distance between themselves and their pursuers, save one taller creature with a lower torso of furry dog-like legs, and an upper half of something vaguely human-like.
• Eventually they lose all of their pursuers and come up on the Hooded Man. Front gates are locked securely, but they follow the path to the ferry jetty and discover a rear gate that is flapping open in the wind.

The Hooded Man: sounds of merriment inside are cut short after Kris knocks on the door. A second knock, and shuffling and clinking can be heard before the fattest person you have ever seen opens the door with a look of surprise.

• Otto, the landlord, tries to turn them away. “Full house tonight -- sorry.” Crew is adamant, and he relents.
• Hans, a roadwarden, is drinking by the fire.
• A bug-eyed servant is mopping up behind the bar.
• Otto grumbles about giving them something to eat, and heads off to the kitchen.
• Crew sits with Hans and they exchange questions. Hans seems suspicious at first. He explains that bandits attacked earlier and killed the stable boy. Crew seems unconvinced.
• When Hans excuses himself to join Otto in the kitchen, owl-eared Karl sidles over to the bar to see what he can make out: something about “don’t worry… sacrifice them to… as well…”
• Otto and Hans return with bowls of stew and tankards of ale. Crew refuses and challenges Otto’s story. Kris demonstratively empties his bowl of soup on the floor as the Crew space themselves out strategically in the taproom.
• After a tense beat, Hans offers that everyone is on edge from the lateness and the storm, and that maybe Otto can offer the travelers accommodation in the upstairs common room. Otto and the Crew agree, and he leads them upstairs.

Upstairs is wet and uncarpeted; Otto leads them through corridors of locked rooms to the back of the building and a dank room of soiled bedding. He slams the door and stomps off. The window faces the courtyard and stables. The horses can be heard panicking.   Karl shadows Otto as he departs, intent on listening in on the strange occupants of the inn. The other three, plus Glimbrin, plan to wait in the common room for a few minutes before checking those other rooms.   After a few minutes the horse cries intensify, and they look out the window to see a human spider skitter out of the stables and towards the inn. The Crew rush back to meet up with Karl.   They meet him at the base of the stairs, relay the intel, and creep together into the taproom. They follow sounds of distant chanting into the kitchen: the back door of the kitchen is ajar, and the floor hatch to the basement has been opened.   Karl shadows/recons down the stairs: storage cellar whose back wall has been excavated to reveal a portal to another chamber. Lights and chanting emanating from far room. Inside, six mutant cultists are gathered in front of a demonic statue. Lights are pulsing during this chaotic ritual. Humans are either piled up dead on one side of the chamber, or tied up unconscious on the other (one human, eyes wide, bound and gagged, seems to be awake and aware).   Mutant Massacre! Crew charges in, dicks swinging and arrows flying.

• Statue comes to life and immediately pierces one of the cultists through the heart before charging forward.
• Godabert and Karl start with a volley of missiles. Beau, Kris, and Glimbrin charge in.
• Man-spider is the first to fall, with the bug-eyed mutant shortly thereafter. Beau steels himself against the mutant with a skull for a face and bashes him into submission. Godabert and Karl have their hands full with Otto, but eventually the fat mutant succumbs to its wounds. Kris aids in the final blows against Hans.
• Glimbrin is a whirling flurry of dodging and stabbiness. One of his crits causes the demon to rupture and coalesce into two slightly smaller demons.
• The demons are eventually destroyed, turned to pink & blue goo, but not before Glimbrin suffers a severe injury and starts bleeding out.
• The dust settles on a very short battle… The Crew have taken care of business once again. Godabert attempts to bandage Glimbrin’s injury. Outside, the rain sounds like it might be receding...

  Interlude:   “GASP! M’lords! By Sigmar! - kaff kaf!” The coachman sputters and coughs as Godabert loosens the gag. Karl finishes cutting loose the bonds around his hands and feet, and the terrified man attempts to compose himself as tears well up in his eyes.   “Thank Sigmar you arrived when you did! Another few moments and I — and we —” He glances across to the bodies piled on the opposite side of the stone corridor.   “Take it easy. Slowly.” Godabert uses his calm, quiet inside voice. “Just take a minute and tell us what happened. When you’re able.”   “What the FUCK is going on here?” Beau stomps over using his loud, abrasive everywhere voice. He uncorks the vial recovered from behind the altar and takes a whiff. “Cinnamon… and… dead mouse? What’s that sound like to you, Kris?”   “Salad dressing? Take a swig and let’s find out.” Kris is poking the pile of bodies on the south side of the corridor with his foot. Four humans and one halfling female — likely the inn’s cook — all dead, either by disembowelment or a slashed throat.   “My name is Baldwin. Baldwin Schaper.” The coachman pulls his legs close to his chest and presses back flat against the rough-hewn cave wall. “My partner and I…” He gulps, looking over at one of the lifeless bodies bleeding onto Kris’s shoe. “We arrived here with three passengers a few hours before dusk, en route to Bogenhafen...”   * * *   In the hours leading up to dawn, the other unconscious prisoners wake up from their drugged stupor, and the Wrecking Crew learn more of what transpired at the Hooden Man the night before.   The coach had come over the Grey Lady Pass from Bretonnia a few days prior and, after separating from a larger caravan west of Tallerhoff, they continued northeast towards the Ubersreik-Bogenhafen road. They hadn’t planned on pulling off when they did, but the coming storm combined with uncertainty regarding Ubersreik’s gate closures, forced their hand.   The passengers, three Bretonnian artisans, were more than happy to accept the hospitality of the Hooded Man, and the landlord and his wife — Fritz and Ingrid Gruetzmacher — made them feel right at home, even opening a private stash of wine from the travelers’ homeland. The rains came. And then came the mutants.   The first two arrivals were a roadwarden — who we later found out was the mutant leader, wearing the uniform of a murdered officer — and a grotesquely obese human. Something happened either at the bar or in the kitchen, because the next thing everyone knew, the inn staff, coachmen, and travelers were suddenly overcome with fatigue. By the time the other four mutants arrived, one more hideous and terrifying than the next, the inn’s occupants were powerless to stop them.   Tied up and sequestered in a locked room upstairs, the one conscious coachman could hear, through the drumbeat of rain and wind, a distant hammering — or chiseling — like pickaxe against rock. The mutants had followed rumors of a long hidden-away shrine and this cult of chaos worshippers — Grasping Hand or Twisting Eye or somesuch — was preparing to excavate the cave and summon a minor demon of the Lord of Change, Tzeentch!   The cultists had sacrificed five people by the time the Crew came knocking: the coachman, the three Bretonnian travelers, and the inn’s halfling cook. Baldwin had no doubt that his group would have been next, but for the timely arrival of the brave watchmen from neighboring Ubersreik.   * * *   “That’s correct, officer. We were following up on a lead that the Cult of the Shifting Purple Eyeball were planning on performing a demonic ritual at a wayside inn upriver from the city. If not for the storm, we may have gotten here sooner… and prevented more bloodshed.” Kris puffs out his chest and leans back in the wooden armchair by the fire, flicking out his open hand nonchalantly at the wrist. Almost instantly he is clutching a warm, steamy mug of mulled wine pressed into his mitt from the effusive Ingrid.   “Our heroes! Our brave, glorious heroes! I mean, it’s a shame about the Bretonnians… I’m sure they was lovely folk… and a cook like Melody will be awful hard to replace, but… Oh! Thank you THANK you!” Ingrid continues to pass around mugs of wine and ale to the Crew and the four attentive roadwardens who arrived an hour past daybreak.   “And you say you arrived on foot…” Of the four roadwardens surveying the crime scene and interviewing the survivors, Sergeant Anton Herzog is the only one who has declined a tankard of hospitality. The bald, muscular Reiklander is also the only one who seems to have been at his post for more than a fortnight.   “Undercovermph.” Beau spits out bits of meat as he speaks. “Scuse me. Undercover. Like we said — this was a clandestine operation. We couldn’t exactly come galloping in here like the county warden with our shields on our backs and feathers in the air. Gertrud, be a dear and fetch me another one of these delicious venison sausages, would you now?”   “Oh coming right up Mr. Mauler sir!” Gertrud, the Man’s servant girl, bustles off to the kitchen. “To think! We was saved from certain death by the Middenheim Mauler hisself! And his faithful followers!”   “Follow— ? Now hold on here —” Karl swivels in his seat, sloshing beer on the hardwood.   Nat Godtgraf, one of the younger roadwardens, had been attending to Glimbrin’s bandages while the injured gnome snored peacefully by the fire, three empty cups of wine clinking and rolling with every breath. “Wait a minute! You four --”   “Five.” Kris points at Glimbrin with his boot.   “You FIVE… are… the Wrecking Crew of Ubersreik?” Nat stands up, a bit in awe.   “What’re you going on about, Godtgraf?” Lukas Breuer, a pale-skinned, red-haired northerner, looks up from his beer to stare quizzically at his partner.   “Of course. Of course you are…” Sergeant Herzog smiles wryly and follows Gertrud to the kitchen.   “They’re officers of the city watch! But… like, special forces or summfink. They’s the ones wot killed that troll the other day!” Nat lets the bandage roll fall on Glimbrin’s plump nose. The gnome sputters and sleepily reaches for one of his cups.   “And a posse of Ska-- Er, beastmen. Sewer-dwelling beastmen. Nastiest things you’d ever meet.” Kris drains his tankard and looks sidelong towards the bar hoping to get Ingrid’s attention. Sergeant Herzog emerges from the kitchen with Gertrud under his arm, and waves his hand drawing the landlord’s wife over to their little huddle.   “Ohhh right. Right.” Rocco Burger, a doughy, pink-cheeked warden, smiles. “I’ve heard about you fellows. They say you all enlisted to set things right with the locals. What with the Altdorfers storming in last month.”   “Which one of you is supposed to be this.. Middenheim Mauler?” Lukas asks.   “That’s supposed to be ME. Gertrud? The venison, dear?” Beau shifts his weight in his chair, letting Windu slide a little farther up his back, keen to display his mace head’s intimidating bulge.   “You don’t look like a Middenlander.” Lukas cocks his head.   Behind them, Ingrid smiles and leads Sergeant Herzog behind the bar. Gertrud separates herself and hustles over to Beau with a fresh trencher heaped with warm sausages. “He LOOKS like a hero,” she retorts. “And what of you? Do you suppose you look like a roadwarden, son? You have nary a speck of mud on your boots.”   “Ha! She has you there, Lukas!” Sergeant Herzog strides emphatically over to the group with a bottle of Bretonnian brandy in one hand, and three glasses in the other. Ingrid scurries behind with a tray of several more glasses. “He’s a bit of a fancy lad, that one,” continues Anton as he passes out glasses. “While inspecting the shipwreck last night, Lukas positioned himself twenty yards from the shore. Didn’t want to get a pebble under his sole.”   “I was scanning the horizon…” Lukas mutters to himself.   “Now, properly. Well met, lads.” Sergeant Herzog uncorks the bottle and begins serving. “My brother serves in the Ubersreik city watch. Pieter Herzog. Has been working the Hill since before the occupation. At breakfast yesterday morning Pieter told me about the Von Holzenauer affair. And the six brave souls who saved many lives that night.”   Glimbrin, eyes still closed, sits upright and offers up his wine cup for a pour from the bottle.   Sergeant Herzog raises his glass. “A toast! To the great Duchy of Ubersreik! To justice in The Empire! And -- to the Wrecking Crew!”   The door to the stairwell opens and Fritz Gruetzmacher, the landlord, emerges with Baldwin and one of the other servants. “Aha! I see I am just in time.” Fritz smiles warmly, and then fold his hands apologetically. “My friends, we would be honored if you would rest at our humble inn today, but we still need time to clean up the rooms above. There was… much blood.”   Sergeant Herzog finishes his brandy, and then interrupts. “I’m afraid no one will be resting here until the Sigmarites have finished their inspection and cleaned the taint from your basement. One of my wardens will remain here with you to assist, Fritz.”   “That’s very kind of you, Fritz, but it’s no matter.” Karl stands up from his chair and brushes some pie crumbs off his jerkin. “We need to be getting back to town ourselves. Need to, uh… see a wizard about a femur.”   “A what now?”   “Just an expression,” Karl replies with a wink.   * * *   The Crew sleeps in Baldwin’s coach for the few hours or so that it takes to get to Ubersreik’s northern checkpoint, at which point they are escorted forthwith through the gate by Sergeant Herzog and Warden Godtgraf.   They stumble over the bridge in the early afternoon, and fall over themselves while clambering through the taproom of the Red Moon Inn en route to the staircase, and the quickest path to their beds. Beer, brandy, and beef pies make for the most wondrous of lullabies. They sleep until the sun goes down...

Rewards Granted

XP:

• +30 for thorough recon throughout the day, checking boxes and asking questions;
• +20 for sailing the boat upriver successfully, ahead of schedule, for ~4 hours;
• +20 for perfectly executing the boat-fire plan despite the saboteur;
• +15 for managing to evade a pack of beastmen;
• +30 for dealing with the mutant cultists in The Hooded Man;
• +50 for killing the demon;
• +75 for a brilliant extended session with minimal whining.

• Godabert: 240
• Beau: 240
• Karl: 240
• Kris: 240

  Loot: 10 GC, 29/15; Potion of [something]; single-servings of dried Valerian, Earthroot, and Spiderleaf

Character(s) interacted with

Locations scouted and NPC’s engaged:   Two travelers outside Cordelia’s:

• one young female (Ingrid)
• and one older male

The Upper Teufel, west of Ubersreik   The Hooded Man, riverside inn between Ubersreik and Flussberg

• Fritz Gruetzmacher, the real landlord
• Ingrid Gruetzmacher, his wife
• Baldwin Schaper, a coachman
• Gertrud, a servant at the Hooded Man
• Horst, a servant at the Hooded Man
• Anton Herzog, Roadwarden Sergeant
• Nat Godtgraf, Roadwarden
• Lukas Breuer, Roadwarden
• Rocco Burger, Roadwarden