S3E14: Death on the Reik – The Dungeon

Recap: Lady Margritte dead along with her mother and henchman warrior. Her brother Gotthard moved on to Middenhiem. Him mutated with a claw and who knows what else (from the warpstone or family curse?). Yet he relishes in the debauchery gathering of other followers of Morrslieb. Important and influential people. Mentions ‘inner circle’ and him in charge of organizing something special for the coming Hexenstag celebrations. And sister Agnes oh-so-ready to burn the castle and its Slaanesh temple. “Hexenstag… those are the 6 Witching Days before the new year. What month is it now?”

Rega (Bill) dwarf Investigator

Brandiwyn (Tony) RiverWarden

Mallorhan (Brian) wood-elf Messenger

Gary (Matt) Warrior/Cavalryman

Sister Agnes (Duane) Warrior Priestess of Shallya

Katja (Geoff) Entertainer/Bounty Hunter

The Dungeon Awaits: Brandi used the key retrieved from Lady Margritte to open the dungeon gate for Agnes’ Orphans and 3 remaining outlaws (one being Hilda). Stairs led down 20 feet to the basement. Wall sconces at least lite the way, highlighting the door straight ahead at an intersection junction that had boards nailed to keep it shut while crudely painted with skull and crossbones. “Somebody doesn’t like THAT room.” But they were stopped short by the sound of heavy breathing to their left, behind a side door. “Someone snoring?” Brandi and Mallorhan were not keen to going further and leaving someone at their back.

Slagdar: Rega pulled out a flask of oil to treat the hinges to then silently peek inside. The ogre across the room stared at him, “Where the money? Who your accomplices?” Rega shuddered at the realization the ogre was talking from a 2^nd mouth in his neck! Rega tried to baffle him, “You must be Slagdar. The money…upstairs in the temple. Accomplices? Only the lady.”  

The questions and answers repeated in an endless cycle till the ogre suddenly burst into screaming at the top of his lungs. “What the hell?!” Rega backed out of the room. Gary suggested, “It almost sounds like he’s mimicking his tortured prisoners. Tell him the lady wants him to go upstairs to guard the money.” Rega reentered… and the endless cycle began anew. To include another startup of the screaming. “It’s like talking to a moron. It IS a moron.” Rega stepped back out.

Meanwhile, the others had opened the door across the hall and found a wine cellar. They offered, “Give the orge wine to shut him up and maybe get him drunk so at least he’s not that big a threat.” Rega re-entered the orge’s room with an armful of bottles that Slagdar broke the necks off and guzzled. Realizing it would take more than a few bottles, they left his door open and the wine cellar’s door to encourage the ogre to continue his drinking as they slipped further into the dungeon.

Torture Chamber: They avoided the skull-n-bones door and went right, past a long side-hall that ended in a spiral stairwell. Instead, they opted for the door straight ahead…another long hall…and opened the door at the end. The torture room, complete with a currently empty iron maiden, torture rack, and rack of cruel knives and pliers still dripping blood and guts. “Impressive, aren’t they?” Agnes’ Orphans were startled by an anorexic man sitting in the hanging gibbet in the shadows with its hatch open. Gary spoke up, “I’m a guest of lady Ingrid, sent down here to question one of the prisoners.” The man perked up and slung the stumps of his legs into the hatch opening as he gleefully chatted, “Are you with Lady Margritte? She usually comes down here herself to chat with them. Let them serenade her with their screams. Slagdar joins in their chorus. She comes back out with little chunks of green stone.”

Prisoners: Gary replied, “No, she sent us alone.” Dejected, the man continued, “Prisoners? Which one of the 5? Can’t be the one without his tongue Slagdar already removed. Slagdar loves to torture them whether they answer his questions or not. Too dumb to know whether they tell the truth or not. Have you heard him singing the tunes of his prisoners? He does love his work. Me? My job is to keep them alive. They can’t sing if they’re dead.” Agnes surveyed the table full of vials and realized none of them contained healing medicines.

As the others exited to the prison cells in the next room, Gary stayed to check out the iron maiden. All were startled by another ear-piercing scream. This time coming from the legless man who jumped from his gibbet perch onto Gary’s back, trying to sink his sharp teeth into Gary’s neck. Gary managed to grab its collar and sling it off. Mallorhan returned with his quarterstaff and pummeled the stump-thing dead.

Agnes stared into the prison cells at the emaciated bodies. She called Hilda forward to recognize any as Wittgendorf villagers, but they were in such sad state of brutalized and amputated form, she only cringed in horror. Agnes raised her hands in prayer…before she completed her mercy killings.

Secrets: “I thought the meteorite was supposed to be down here!” They searched the walls. Rega found a secret door within the 2^nd cell, “This way.” Brandi backtracked to retrieve a wall-sconce light before they entered the carved dark tunnel. Katja knelt to pick up a piece of paper. Agnes read it, “Cover for a book titled ‘Notes on the Orbit of Morrslieb’ but the inside pages are torn out.” Rega reasoned, “Probably the ogre used the pages as toilet paper.” Brandi doubted, “When did an ogre ever care about cleanliness?”

They found a crumpled page further along at a dead-end wall. Which caused search, “Another secret door.” Agnes blessed them for the expected corrupted exposure they’d face from such a large source of warpstone.

They weren’t prepared to face a mass of skaven! Almost a dozen skittered about the room that held a large metal box. It’s door open and it empty. A bobbing green glow beyond these skaven told of another mass of skaven already hefting the meteorite away. In a squeaky voice, one rat gave a single-finger salute, “Too late fuckers!” “Twang.” Mallorhan lowered the salute with one arrow as another sank into the skaven’s chest.

Duck!: Rega pulled out a bomb and rushed behind the box as he warned, “Take cover!” He lit the fuse and tossed it. [failed Throw, failed Fortune, used ‘Resilience’ to succeed] The image of the bomb landing at their own feet coursed thru everyone’s mind. But the bomb landed in the midst of the skaven instead. But that was also when they saw another skaven at the throat of the escape tunnel holding his own bomb. 

And this skaven had on a mask. And his bomb glowed green. Realization, “It’s a poison bomb!” Rega’s bomb exploded first, killing a few rats. But most important, its concussive wave blocked the skaven’s exploding bomb poison cloud from reaching the humans. “RUN!”

It didn’t matter to the masked skaven that he killed his own kind. But he was pissed the humans escaped. But then a wry grim formed as the first of their planned bombs above exploded. Agnes’ Orphans realized the skaven had booby-trapped the castle trying to hide their treacherous plans. “You Rat Bastards!” They were about to retrace their steps, when Mallorhan noticed the backside of another secret door to the right. “This way!” Time was of the essence; therefore, when they realized this door opened beside the spiral staircase, they climbed it. And tried to dodge falling stones as more bombs exploded throughout the castle. While Agnes, Gary, and Katja were just clipped, one of the outlaws was crushed.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: Once more they entered the corrupted Temple of Sigmar now desecrated as a temple to Slaanesh. And the demon took pleasure at their return. [failed Constitution] And Brandi took pleasure on himself. Agnes grabbed him by the collar to drag him out of the temple into the courtyard. Where they witnessed the tower beside the temple begin to collapse.

And saw Ludwig standing at the window (with an ‘Oh shit’ look) with his antenna twitching at his inevitable demise as he rode the tower down. Himself crushed.

They sprinted toward the outer bailey bridge as more stones fell all around. Mallorhan far outdistanced the others and was already across, while the humans were just nearing the bridge. And the dwarf brought up the rear. They watched in horror as stones from the crenelated ramparts began to fall on the bridge. Katja ducked and dodged as she sprinted across the bridge. Gary reached out to stop others as he watched a stone crush the bridge span just before him. Had they continued, surely they would have been crushed. They paused to stare at the wide 10ft gap in the bridge. Another falling stone brought them back to the present, “JUMP!”

Katja threw a rope across with a plan to pull the others as they jumped to hopefully give them the distance to make it across the gap. Rope in hand, Agnes took a running start and made the other side. Gary, even in his heavy armor, just made it. Brandi paused for the dwarf just arriving. Without explaining his intent, he grabbed the dwarf and slung him across. Heavier than expected. Rega flailed for the other side and barely got fingers on the road edge. Gary reached to grab his beard and pulled him up. Brandi jumped across and without stopping, “You can hug later, we still have an outer bailey to exit.”

Barging Ahead: Hours later, they were aboard the ‘LostnFound’ making headway down the Reik for Nuln. Brandi had already recruited the remaining outlaw and Hilda who were glad to escape. As Brandi instructed them how to be sailors, he cautioned, “Just don’t tell folks you came from Wittgendorf. They might stone you and us. And I’ve already gone thru one stoning attempt.” Katja spoke up, “Did you notice the earring on that skaven bomber? Still had part of the owner’s finger inside. And its wolfhead designs.” Agnes spoke, “That is the symbol for Ulric who is worshiped to the north. The same place Margritte’s brother Gotthard journeyed. I think we might want to check in on Middenheim.” Brandi corrected, “Not before we sell our goods in Nuln. We can barter for more ware to sell when we do travel north thru Aldorf.”

Grissenwald: They briefly stopped in Grissenwald to checkup on their part-ownership mine. The dwarves were not happy, “The veins have dried up. There’s no gold. You must have cleared it out before you sold it to us.” Brandi reminded them, “You mined the place for 20 years and barely found any to begin with. Are you saying humans are better miners than dwarves?”

Nuln: It took them 2 days to reach Nuln and enter the backed up river traffic awaiting a dock. At least Agnes caught the eye of a riverwarden who sped up their entry. Mallorhan hit the dock running, never to be seen again. Rega gathered his gear and headed to the Nuln Engineering School. Brandi sought a legal doctor to surgically repair his almost severed arm. Gary reported into the calvary office and argued for promotion. Katja found plenty of bars that allowed singing and dancing by an inebriated bounty hunter.

While Brandi was being hospitalized, Gary stood on the deck of the barge in his captain’s hat. Maybe that’s why the merchant mistook him for, “Good evening captain, can I come aboard? Name’s Matthis Blucher. I’d like to commission your boat to haul a shipment north. I’ll even pay you 500 gold; 250 up front. It’s just fancy dinnerware but quite valuable; so, you’ll need to protect it.” Gary brightened at the prospect of free cargo, “We’ll need a contract. Wouldn’t want to be held accountable if our barge sank or we were overrun by pirates.” Matthis agreed, “Actually, I already have a contract. If you’ll just sign at the bottom.” Gary interrupted, “You’ll have to wait till my accountant, sister Agnes, returns to read it over.” Matthis was more than happy, “While we wait, would you like to join me at an opera? You can bring your associates. Formal affair.”

Two weeks after arriving, when they rejoined, Brandi appeared with a halfling riding an ogre. “You remember Dumpling Hayfoot, we rescued from Etelka’s tower? She’s going to rejoin us as cook and has brought her friend along. Say hello to Ymath [Brain’s new character], her pet ogre.” Dumpling corrected, “He’s not a pet. A friend. Quite intelligent for an ogre.” Rega injected, “We met Slagdar. So, are you saying he’s smarter than a chicken?” Ymath spoke for himself, “Chickens are actually very smart.” Gary wondered aloud, “I don’t know. Should we bring him along to the opera? Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. A merchant by the name of Matthis invited us to a formal dinner. I guess that’s what an opera is. He commissioned us to transport dinnerware north. He paid US to transport it. 400 gold with 150 paid upfront.” Agnes corrected, “I read the contract and it said 500 gold. And an opera is actually singing. A little better than Slagdar.”

Next Session: https://rigglewwh.blogspot.com/2022/02/s4e1-power-behind-throne-night-at-opera.htm