Episode 17: Mistaken Identity Report

General Summary

The Enemy Within: Enemy in Shadows Episode 17 - “Mistaken Identity” 6/19/2020 Post-Game Notes   Day 69 - Aubentag, 21 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Picks up in the evening, dropped off at Coach & Horses by Dr. Hollseher A Ratchett Lines coach is parked outside; its drivers and passengers are in the barroom:

• Gunnar & Hultz, the coachmen are at the bar and are already drunk
• Lady Isolde, her maid Janna, and her bodyguard Charlotte are scowling from a back table
• The foppish Phillipe Descartes is playing with his moustache and eyeing the PC’s from the end of the bar
• Nerdy student Ernst Heidelman is reading a book at a table by himself

Beau and Kris get right into it telling everyone who will listen about the Crew’s latest exploits, and making it clear that they’re looking to get back to Altdorf. Gustav recommends talking to the coachmen, who are headed that way in the morning.   Gunnar & Hultz agree to squeeze the PC’s into (onto) their coach all the way to Altdorf for 6/- each. PC’s agree, they pay, and the two coachmen immediately turn the silver into more bottles.   Ernst “McFly” Heidelman politely, and somewhat to himself, corrects Kris’s pronunciation of “Squi-GGG.” At which point the Crew goes full-on Biff Tannen and harrasses the poor kid. “Ohhhh whatcha reading? Anyone sitting here? You gonna finish that?”   Crew plays cards with Phillipe, who is all too excited to make their game of Scarlet Empress “eeeenteresting.” God drops out after losing his first three 2-shilling hands, but the other three stick around long enough to lose their shirts to the steenky Bretonnian.

• God: out 6/-
• Kris: out 16/-
• Karl: out 24/-
• Beau: out 34/-
• Phillipe: up 80/-

Lady Isolde and her retinue retire around 11:00, just as Phillipe is trying to talk the PC’s into one more hand.   Blackie the Crow flies over to Ernst, lights on a picture frame, and then starts reading over the boy’s shoulder, in a surprisingly deep human voice, a language unfamiliar to all gathered in the bar.

• Black smoke starts billowing from the pages of Ernst’s book and they coalesce into a squat bird-demon, who immediately lunges for the coachmen.
• Ernst screams, drops the book, and runs outside.
• Blackie laughs his deep human laugh and flies away.
• The Crew dispatch the demon and Gustav, in his gratitude, comps them their room & board. (Herpin: “I wish I could say that that’s the first time I’ve seen something like that…”)
• No trace of Ernst or the crow.
• Beau recovers Ernst’s book. Under a fake cover (Leeches and their Curative Properties) is a book in classical about demons or some shit.

Day 70 - Marktag, 22 Erntezeit, 2512 IC   Takes a while to get going because Gunnar & Hultz have massive hangovers. Then Gunnar locks himself in the outhouse for twenty minutes.   Meanwhile, the Lady Isolde refuses to be crowded in with commoners but, seeing as how no one has seen Ernst, and there is a spot in the coach freed up, Charlotte recommends Godabert. The other three climb on the roof.   Beau promises to deliver Ernst’s case to him in Altdorf. Good enough for the could-care-less coachmen.   Godabert chats up the ladies in the coach, but doesn’t learn too much, other than that she’s from Kemperbad, and the bodyguard has been serving the Von Strudeldorf family for thirty years. It starts raining on the folks on the roof.   An hour or so after the coach joins the Middenheim-Altdorf road, the group comes upon a grisly scene: a mutant crouching over a dead coachman, with a severed hand hanging from its mouth.

• The mutant rushes the coach, scaring the horses. They break the traces, and Hultz gets carried off by one of the horses into the forest. Gunnar scrambles to brake the coach, and it crashes into some trees.
• Kris recognizes the mutant! That is -- or was -- Rolf Hurtsis!
• The rooftop trio makes short work of Rolf.
• Surveying the damage, they hear an inhuman scream from farther down the road. Hultz almost takes an arrow to the face when he comes out of the foliage.
• Investigating up ahead, they see five mutants picking through the carcasses and rubble of a turned-over coach. Many of the mutants look wounded, save for one giant in stony skin carrying a heavy crossbow.
• Beau draws first blood with a bolt to the big guy, and then the other four (dog-head, pin-head, small-head, and goat-legs) attack!
• Beau, Karl, and Kris hold off the bulk of the attack, while God does his thing from afar. At one point, as the battle looks to be going poorly for the Chaos-spawn, the leader lets fly with a bolt right into the middle of the melee, not worrying about hitting friend or foe. He hits Karl, who drops to the ground with a devastating wound. As Karl crawls away, the other three finish off the brutes, including the leader.
• 
  God and Kris survey the fallen and come across a shocking discovery: one of the dead passengers is a dead ringer for Karl! This poor ugly bastard has paperwork identifying him as one Kastor Lieberung, and he was apparently heading to Bogenhafen to claim a massive inheritance. Kris deftly pockets the inheritance letter and the signed affidavit confirming Kastor’s identity.
• Beau ropes up the unconscious leader and drags him back to their coach. Before he can get to the punchline of his, “pay me to keep this lasso around the monster” ploy, Gunnar heroically discharges his blunderbus into the mutant’s face.
• As Karl is bleeding out, the galloping hoofbeats of a road warden patrol can be heard in the distance...

Interlude:   Sergeant Magnus Pflaster patiently waits for a break in the sobbing and screaming before attempting to respond. When the Lady Isolde Von Strudeldorf finally gasps for air, the dark-skinned old soldier interjects, “I understand, my Lady, but we can’t just leave the bodies by the side of the road. The poor souls and foul creatures alike will need to be tended to by a Doomsayer…”   “I DON’T CARE about any soul but my own! And my dress has -- has -- BRAINS on it from that monstrous filth! No one is going to bother identifying that lot of commoners! Let us go!” Lady Isolde looks positively juvenile as she throws her tightly clenched fists in the air.   “She’s right, Sarge.” One of Magnus’s wardens gives him a shrug. “There was no identification and we ain’t going to bother…”   “That’s enough out of you Willirun. Help the others drag the bodies into the other coach.”   Charlotte intercedes and folds down her Lady’s outstretched arms, allowing her to pout loudly into the bodyguard’s leathers. “We are certainly grateful for your… timely arrival, Sergeant. But the truth of it is this scene was well in hand before you arrived. For our sake, we were most fortunate to have the able bow of Mister Godabert here.” The corner of Charlotte’s mouth peaks slightly as she casts a glance at God.   “A-HEM!” Beau looks up from cleaning his hat and flicks brain off the end of his fingers.   “And Mister Godabert’s able-bodied assistants.” Charlotte nods to Beau with a polite acknowledgment. Beau, for once, is speechless.   Baldwin calls over to the assembled crew of still-living travelers. One gloved hand is lifting up the head of a corpse by its hair while the other hand is preparing to shove the rest of the body into the Four Seasons coach. “Oy! Is this your twin? Bad luck, mate!”   Everyone else turns to look at Karl, whose “twin” is piled into the coach along with the other dead travelers and slaughtered mutants.   Kris breaks the confused silence. “Well it’ll be shit luck for both brothers if we don’t get my pal Hung to some medical attention quickly.”   * * *   The road wardens lead the two coaches south about an hour to the Seven Spokes. The bodies are dumped in the courtyard and a rag-tag band of adventurers, brains-stained nobles, sobered-up coachmen, and apathetic road wardens burst noisily into the taproom. Beau’s booming voice drowns out the din, and from across the now-quiet room comes a gentle answer to his query.   “Yes, I am a doktor.”   A frowning woman stands up from her ale and pie, and brushes the curly black hair from her face as she approaches the group. Just then, having tended to matters outside, Sergeant Magnus enters the taproom, his towering figure blocking out what’s left of the setting sun through the doorway.   Magnus and the Doktor meet each other’s gaze and curse in unison.   “Oh, fuck me,” says she and “Oh, fuck no,” says he.   * * *

Rewards Granted

XP:

• 20 pts for killing the bird demon
• 10 pts for killing Rolf the Mutant
• 30 points for killing the rest of the mutants
• 35 points for a good, clean session full of bravado, pathos, and humor

• Godabert: 95
• Beau: 95
• Karl: 95
• Kris: 95

Loot:

• A lot less silver than they started with (see above)
• A book that is not about leeches (De Vitae Occultae Daemoniis)
• Ernst’s locked leather traveling case (with secret compartment sueded with a red crown motif)

Character(s) interacted with

Locations scouted and new NPC’s engaged:   The Coach & Horses, along the Delbren Road

• Ernst Heidelman, “medical” student
• Lady Isolde, noblewoman
• Janna, maid
• Charlotte, bodyguard
• Phillipe Descartes, Bretonnian; good at cards
• Gunnar & Hultz, Ratchett Lines coachmen

Drakwald Corridor, an hour’s north away from the Seven Spokes

• Magnus Pflaster, Road Sergeant (see interlude)
• Baldwin, Leopold, Sunna, & Willirun, road wardens (see interlude)