WFRP: Spires of Altdorf Synopsis

Spires of Altdorf: Major Plot Points

Game 8: To Altdorf!

The party began their day conferring with the powers that be in Middenheim. With his dying breaths, Liebnitz had revealed that there were two more artefacts like the brass skull. Each containing the essence of some daemon or other named Xathrodox. This information was passed on to Professor Zweistein who began to research the name in hopes of finding some clues as to the whereabouts of the remaining two artefacts. Meanwhile, the party tended to their wounds, honed their skills and waited for the good professor to finish his work.
After a few days, Zweistein discovered two vague references to Xathrodox. On an old scroll Zweistein found mention of the daemon's legend. Xathrodox, apparently, was a daemon of the blood god Khorne, and a rather nasty bit of business. According to legend, Khorne was displeased with Xathrodox and stripped him of his worldly body. Xathrodox's essence was divided among three vessels: the Brass Skull, the Dagger of Yul K'chaum, and the Chalice of Wrath. The scroll warns, rather gleefully, that releasing the bound essence will result in Xathrodox rising again.
Zweistein found a fragment of a diary written by an unidentified Priest of Ulric which suggests that the Dagger of Yul K'chaum may have been brought to Altdorf some time in the last couple decades.
The Brass Skull has been accounted for and unfortunately, the essence trapped within has been released. What remains is to find the other two vessels and destroy them and their foul cargo before they too can release the remaining parts of Xathrodox's essence.
The elders of Middenheim, Commander Schutzmann, High Capitular Stoltz, and Acting Deputy High Priest Ranulf, asked the party if they would be willing to act as the city's clandestine agents and see to the destruction of the remaining two artefacts. They asked for complete discretion and hoped that the group could bring this issue to a swift end without attracting the witch hunters and making things in Middenheim more complicated than they already were.
The group agreed and struck a bargain: 20gc each as a retainer and 20gc each for each artefact that was found and destroyed. In addition, the city fathers agreed to provide (reasonable) equipage for the trip which would help defray the party's costs.
The party set out the next day, joining a small caravan consisting of two families and two Road Wardens. The Road Wardens, Siegfried and Ulrike were glad of the extra company as the roads out of Middenheim had been particularly dangerous of late. The two families were headed by a cartwright named Adelbert Mos and Pieter Brusch, a blacksmith. They were accompanied by their wives, children and parents. In all about 15 people.
The first two days passed without incident. Each day, the road wardens made sure that the caravan kept moving in order to reach the next coaching inn or village before nightfall.
On the morning of the third day, two beastmen attacked the caravan. Bol Pean discovered that driving a cart isn't the easiest thing to do when the horse spooked and started to run. Spam was caught unaware and was plopped unceremoniously out of the cart onto his head. Monteego, Malikor, and the two road wardens made short work of the beastmen. The caravan was able to continue on and arrived in Delberz just before the sun went down.
The next morning as the group was getting ready to go, a furniture merchant from Altdorf asked to join the caravan as he was returning home from a rather unsuccessful business trip to Delberz and Middenheim. He introduced himself as Wolfgang and was granted permission to join the caravan by the road wardens.
The carvan moved on through the morning unmolested until noon when they were ambushed by a group of beastmen armed with bows. Once again, dealing with the beastmen wasn't terribly difficult but it did take up valuable time, a fact the road wardens were only too eager to point out.
On their guard but still moving, the caravan stopped when the Siegfried who was riding in the lead came back to announce that some beastmen has set up a road block up ahead. Cursing the delays, he told the party that the beasts would have to be dealt with as it was too late to turn around and go back. The party moved ahead through the trees under the cover of of Monteego's arrows. As they approached the road-block, some of the beastmen took off. When they got close enough, they realized that the road-block was a ruse as the remaining "beastmen" were merely dead bodies set up as decoys. At that moment, a particularly large mutant stepped out of the woods and smashed a wheel on one of the carts. He was brought down just before he managed to smash another one. Fearing what might happen if they stuck around to repair the wheel, the party opted to abandon their cart and transferred their belongings to one of the others.
Night began to fall before the party could make it to the next coaching inn. As they hurried along, archers in the forest began pelting the caravan with arrows. Few of the arrows hit anything although the fusillade was relentless. many of the shafts thunked into the carts and suddenly one of the children was hit. At that point the party opted to stand their ground. Since many of the party have excellent night vision they extinguished their lights to help make themselves less of a target. Apparently that was what the beastmen were waiting for because as soon as the lights went out, a dozen or more of the foul creatures erupted from the woods and attacked. The fighting was furious and clearly the party was outnumbered. Almost immediately the scene was lit by a huge flame that erupted from Wolfgang's head. As the fight went on Wolfgang began casting small fireballs into the beastmen setting them alight and causing a great deal of mayhem. The beastmen were quickly routed and the caravan made it to the next coaching inn without further incident.
The remainder of the trip to Altdorf was uneventful. Wolfgang explained that he was not a furniture merchant but in fact a Magister of the Bright College (the Fire Wizards). His gave his name as Wolfgang Scheunacht and claimed he was traveling back to Altdorf after assisting the military during the battles at Middenheim. He preferred to travel incognito as the rural types tended to get too nervous around wizards. Sometimes the great unwashed acted like they didn't know the difference between a witch and a Magister licensed by one of the Imperial Colleges of Magick. How unfortunate for them.
Arriving in Altdorf the party, the families, the road wardens and Wolfgang all went their separate ways. Wolfgang gave the group his address and hoped that they would stop by at least once before they left town. The road wardens directed the party to a good inn nearby called 'The Burning Table'. After getting settled in, the group went to visit their first known contact, one Dieter Klemperer. They showed Klemperer their letter of introduction and he chatted with them at great length about their predicament. He recommended that they talk to Lord Frederick, a nobleman of Altdorf who was known to be a steadfast foe of Chaos. In addition, Lord Frederick knows just about everybody who is anybody and might be a good resource to help the party. He also recommends a retired witch hunter named Theodora Pferig. While he does not know Pferig personally Klemperer understands that she is a coolheaded enemy of Chaos and could help point the party in the right direction.

Game 9: Investigations in Altdorf

The next morning opened with a letter delivered by a little Oliver Twist type. Opening the letter revealed it to be some sort of daemonic letter bomb. The daemons in question weren't particularly large but they were the darndest things to catch. When the dust cleared it turned out that the letter had nothing written on it, just a crude skull design painted in blood. This looked to be a symbol of the same Crimson Skull cult that the party encountered in Middenheim. Catching up to the boy who delivered the letter, the party found out that he was hired to deliver the letter by a 'short but strong looking' woman at 'The Three Beards', a tavern in one of the scarier parts of Altdorf.
After a trip to the haberdashers to pick out some new duds, the party whiled away the afternoon until it was time for the curtain call at Zeigmuller's Theatre where they hoped to meet up with Lord Frederick. They found Lord Frederick in his accustomed royal box waiting for The Tilean Duke, a "blood soaked tale of romance and revenge" to start. Once Lord Frederick learned who the party were and became convinced of their veracity, he agreed to meet them the next day at his estate.
The next day they met Lord Frederick and a young man named Johan Schmidt. Schmidt apparently was quite enamored of the idea of adventuring and fighting Chaos and asked to join the group in their investigations. Lord Frederick seemed to indicate that this would probably predicate any help on his part.
That bit out of the way, the group talked at great length about what they were up to and what they were up against. Lord Frederick agreed to provide any help he could and of course would do his best to introduce the party to people who might be able to help. In particular, Lord Frederick wrote a letter of introduction to a Konrad Messner, a master wizard of the Light College. It is rumoured in many circles that the Light College collect and store Chaos artifacts for safe-keeping. Some commend this practice as a great service to the Empire and mankind. Others see this as a license to play with the Ruinous Powers and believe the Light Wizards are corrupt. In either case, there is a distinct possibility that the Light Wizards will know of the Dagger of Yul K'chaum and if the party are really lucky, will have it in their vault.
Finally Lord Frederick, like the wizard Klemperer the previous day, mentioned Theodora Pferig as a good contact. Pferig is a retired witch hunter but a truly cool-headed investigator and brave warrior.
Next, Johan Schmidt in tow, the party went to find Konrad Messner at the Light College. The first challenge was in fact finding the Light College. Once that ordeal was passed they were able to get an audience with Lord Messner. Messner listened to the adventurers tale with a great deal of feigned interest until they apparently said the right things to make him sit up and take notice. He did allow that the Light College maintained many ancient artifacts in their vaults but the exact nature of which he was not at liberty to say. He didn't come out and say that they had the Dagger but if they did, Messner would need to know in detail what the party planned to do to destroy it. Many of the artifacts were kept by the order precisely because they could not be destroyed so a definite and detailed plan would be required.
Also, Messner said that the Light Wizards in general and himself in particular were being plagued by a dwarf witch hunter named Gottri Hammerfist. Hammerfist is just looking for an excuse to burn Messner at the stake as a corrupt servant of the Ruinous Powers. Messner feels that going into the vault and handing out tainted daggers would not be in his best interest as long as Gottri wanted him dead. He's really not sure why Hammerfist has it in for him but he did say he was unwilling to proceed with the party until Hammerfist has been neutralized. Messner was quick to point out that by neutralized he did NOT mean killed. Too many questions.
Back at the inn, the party found that their rooms had been ransacked and the old nasty looking Chaos mace had been stolen. Going down to the innkeeper to see if anyone had seen anything, they were told that two fellows, a dwarf with an axe tattooed on his head and a giant Norscan, had come into the barroom and started a brawl with little or no provocation. They broke crockery, furniture, and noses for about ten minutes and then just left.
That night, the party headed over to the scarier parts of town with the intent of staking out the Three Beards Tavern. They hoped to spot the woman described by the boy that morning or the two thugs that had busted up the Inn that afternoon.
The tavern was an unruly place with constant fighting, swilling and... other things going on. The stakeout proved to be a bust. On the way home, the party were beset by a band of cutthroats intent on stealing their lives and money. One of the scum survived long enough to inform the party that they were hired by some woman at the Three Beards specifically to attack and kill the party. They were paid well and were promised a bonus if they brought back heads as proof of the deed. Johan Schmidt was a little put out but did acquit himself well in the fight.

Game 10: Further Adventures in Altdorf

The party continued their investigations in Altdorf. First they decided to tackle the problem of Gottri Hammerfist. A few well placed rumours, a couple sheep deliveries, and a few coins distributed to willing street urchins was enough to sully Hammerfist's reputation to earn him an investigation by the city watch, inquiries by the Witch Hunter's ethics committee, and picketing by several concerned mother's organizations. Hammerfist's... indiscretions became the talk of the Altdorf nobility.
While out and about, the group ran into the Norscan and the axe emblazoned dwarf who reputedly ran a diversion while someone else was ransacking the party's rooms. A couple bloody noses later the pair were more than willing to talk and even paid for the privilege by handing over their wallets to the party. They indicated that they were hired by one Solveig Thudrun, a woman they met at The Cock Pit. Following up on this was relatively straightforward. Thudrun was far more interested in preserving her skin than having trouble with a group of bloodthirsty thugs.. er, heroes.. and told the party that she was hired by a balding, grey-bearded, stout fellow named Dieter. She was instructed to return with "any items or jewellery with strange markings" which is what she did. She found the mace and met Dieter in the ruins near the Bright College. The party made her show them where she met him. They went to the location and found their mace, apparently discarded, in the rubble.
The next day the group was approached by the Bright Wizard, Wolfgang Scheunacht. He mentioned that he had heard the group was poking around looking for a Chaos artefact and wanted to know what they were up to. He said that he was concerned they were up to no good and indicated that he might be inclined to mention his concerns to the Witch Hunters unless the party could convince him that they were not into something untoward. They spilled most of the beans about the dagger and their intention to destroy it. Scheunacht said that he might be able to help them with that last bit as he knew a ritual for such things. He insisted on helping them achieve their goals.
First, Scheunacht sent them on an errand to pick up a delivery from one of his suppliers. They went to the indicated warehouse and met with a mysterious shrouded figure who had a crate ready for the wizard. He asked if it was to be delivered to the usual place and the group told him that the crate was to be delivered to Scheunacht's house. An uncomfortable silence followed as they sorted out where the "usual place" was. The "usual place" turned out to be the back door of the Empire House (the headquarters of the various city law enforcement agencies). Finding that curious, the party moved to stake the place out and see what what was going on. After a few abortive attempts to get into the place, Lord Frederick happened by in his carriage and asked what was going on. He, of course, believed the party immediately and helped them get inside to investigate. After a couple hours of poking around, they found a hidden door at the back of a broom closet which led to some ominous steps leading down. The party, Lord Frederick, and some City Watchmen headed down into the dark to see what was going on. All deep dark hidden places have a guardian daemon and this one was no exception. Once that nasty thing was dispatched, Scheunacht himself appeared to do battle with the heroes. He was soundly thumped.
This left the characters somewhat at a loss as to what they could do about destroying the dagger. Johann Schmidt remembered that he had a friend at the Amethyst College who might be able to help point them in the right direction. Schmidt introduced the party to Gabrielle Marsner, a young master wizard of the Amethyst College. After a long conversation she decided to help the group and informed them that she knows a ritual called the "Cleansing of the Corrupted Vessel". They worked out the details with Messner at the Light College, obtained the dagger, and then brought it to Marsner for destruction. All in a day's work.

Game 11: Loose Ends and a Field Trip

The party had become the talk of the Altdorf elite and found themselves invited to parties at Lord Frederick's, gallery openings, and masquerade balls. Lord Frederick put them up in 'The Tooth and Nail', a fine Inn in a much nicer part of town. Konrad Messner agreed to put some of his people on the job of locating the third artefact, the Chalice of Wrath.
The group decided to follow up on the crazy woman who seemed to want them all killed. She was last known to be frequenting a nasty dive known as 'The Three Beards'. They went to that neighborhood planning to ask the locals where they could find her. While traveling about their errands, Bol Pean found himself with a crossbow quarrel poking out of his shoulder. More annoyed than hurt he and the others scanned the surrounding buildings for the culprit. They spotted the marksman in the second story of a tenement just as another crossbow bolt embedded itself in a shop sign to the left of Monteego's head. Malikor, Joey, and Bol Pean headed for the tenement's upper levels while Monteego and Spam readied their bow and sling respectively. The sight of three armed men entering the building on the trail of a sniper had the occupants of the place fleeing in a panic, a situation that found Malikor dumped unceremoniously back to the ground floor in a heap.
Monteego and Spam spotted their assailant on the roof and then headed to the alley next to the building when they realized the sniper was probably going to try to escape out the back. They came around the corner just as the sniper landed in the back of a hay wain. He was just getting up to flee when one of Monteego's arrows took a slice out of his leg. Joey tried to chuck a brick out of second story window at the guy which unfortunately missed. Seeing a golden opportunity, Bol Pean decided to chuck himself out of a third story window in hopes of landing on the crossbowman. The dwarf plummeted three stories into the waiting haywain, collapsing the cart and knocking himself senseless. Spam managed to fire a stone into the hapless sniper's leg causing him to fall, clutching his shins.
The party trussed up the sniper and brought him back inside the tenement for questioning. Trying out his new-found torturing skills (with some help from the cherubic, yet intimidating, Spam Gangree), Joey managed to get out of him that he was hired by a woman at the Three Beards, blah, blah, blah. They took the sniper's wallet and crossbow and left him tied up in a closet. Bol Pean lagged behind for a few minutes while the others took their leave, something about a grudge...
Next the party decided to continue the task that brought them to this crappy part of town in the first place: stake out the 'Three Beards' and wait for their nemesis du jour. While hanging out pretending to drink and trying to stay out of fights their old companion Steve Taylor happened by and offered to help with the stakeout. Around 2:00am, the woman in question arrived and elbowed her way up to one of the bars. Slowly the group fanned out to surround her and hopefully take her into custody without too much fuss. Bol Pean approached the woman when all were in place and introduced himself with a sly smirk. She immediately proceeded to wipe that smirk off his face with her elbow, bloodying his pug. Just as the rest of the group jumped her, one of the fires in the nearest open hearth, erupted in a huge blast of flame. Immediately patrons began to panic and started heading for the doors. Taylor managed to catch the woman by the arm with his whip. She almost escaped, but he was quick with his net and managed to get her completely tangled. Picking her and Bol Pean up off the floor the party made their way out of the tavern.
Questioning her proved fruitless as her only response to questioning were gobbets of phlegm and statements such as, "You're all going to die!" Unimpressed, the group decided to drop her off with the Witch Hunters and see if they could coax any information out of her (after relieving her of her wallet of course). While searching her they also found an odd coin with the head of a beastman where the Emperor's visage would normally be. They turned this in to the Witch Hunters as well. Taylor took his leave at this point and went on to help process the wretch.
Exhausted from their long hard day, the party headed back to their rooms at the 'Tooth and Nail' for a well-deserved rest. They each retired to their respective rooms but not before Bol Pean rigged up the captured crossbow as a booby trap. A few hours later, Bol Pean awoke with a horrible pain in his gut. Initially he assumed it was the paint thinner they called ale at the 'Three Beards' but that turned out to be not the case. He was seriously hurt. Examining his belly he found a huge red welt that seemed to be leeching blood. Suddenly he felt pulled as if something had hold of him. Crying out in pain and annoyance he began raging about in his room knocking over furniture trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Then suddenly he saw in the mirror the thing that was attached to him: some kind of horrifying red blob boiling with disembodied faces.
By this time the rest of the group were roused from their slumbers and headed toward Bol Pean's room to investigate. Knowing that he had set up the booby-trap they were somewhat reluctant to go into the room but they did anyway. Spam was the first in and quickly figured out what was going on. Monteego also figured out what was going on and ran off soiling his tights. Eventually they figured out that they could hurt the thing by attacking it while looking in the mirror and dispatched the creature before it did any permanent damage. Once again, Joey broke out his medical supplies and fixed up Bol Pean as best he could.
Shortly after the hub-bub with the blood sucking gas ghost, a messenger arrived with a note for one Joseph Mengele. Joey accepted the missive and found it was an invitation to dinner from someone named "K". "K" it seemed wanted to see him at 9:00pm at 'The Lord's Bounty', an upscale dining establishment in the not-so-stinky part of town. A quick visit with Lord Frederick confirmed that "K" was most likely Katarine Braun, a young noble woman from Praag who had asked about the adventurers during one of Frederick's many parties. Joey determined that he would need to upgrade his wardrobe before the event.
Following up on various leads, the party found that the Light Wizards might have some inclination as to where the third artefact may have gone. A clue pointed to the monastery of Saint Abelard, not far from Altdorf. The group decided they would follow up on that lead the next day. They also learned that Saint Abelard's had been sacked as the war wound down and was currently unoccupied.
A visit to the Templar headquarters revealed that the Witch Hunters had lost track of the woman from 'The Three Beards' when she managed to overpower her guards and escaped. They were not able to glean any information from her in the brief time they had her in custody.
That night, Joey went out on his 'date' with Fraulein Braun at 'The Lord's Bounty'. The others hung around outside trying to look inconspicuous in case something awful happened which so far in their experience seemed likely. Dinner proceeded pleasantly enough with Fraulein Braun explaining that she was originally from Praag but moved to Altdorf when she was a girl. Her mother had married a nobleman in Altdorf after her father died. It turned out that her interest in Joey was primarily business. She was quite impressed with the group's reputed skills and wished to hire them on as bodyguards. The Countess Emanuelle of Nuln was throwing a grand celebration as part of Black Powder Week and had invited nobility from all over including Fraulein Braun. The trip to Nuln could be difficult in the best of times and the recent uptick in beastmen activity since the war has made the journey particularly risky. She wants to go and would feel much safer in the company of some hired thugs... er, experienced adventurers. Joey agreed to talk to the rest of the group and promised an answer in the morning.
The group of course agreed to the job since that would move the plot along though the irony of being involved in anything that included large amounts of black powder was not lost on them. They left a written answer with the innkeeper at the 'Tooth and Nail' who would hand it over to Fraulein Braun's messenger when he arrived in the morning. That done they headed out to Saint Abelard's monastery.
The trip to Saint Abelard's didn't take very long as the place was not too far out of town. As promised it had been thoroughly sacked and other than the abbey itself and one of the four towers it was completely in ruins. Seeing a considerable number of cloven footprints in the area around the compound the group decided to take care while entering. The courtyard was littered with the decaying bodies of humans and beastmen although in both cases they were rotted and chewed enough to be unrecognizable.
Starting with the intact tower, the crew rather noisily forced the door open and looked inside. Monteego and Spam kept watch on the ground floor while Joey, Bol Pean and Malikor went upstairs for a look around. They didn't find much except for the hanging bodies of some of the monks, apparently suicides. In one of the monks' trunks they did find a diary written by a young novitiate who had an interesting story to tell. Apparently, while polishing the brass around the altar, the young wannabe monk managed to trip a catch which opened a small door in the side of the altar. Intrigued he decided to explore and found himself in a hidden chamber beneath the abbey. Amongst the bones and reliquaries, the young novitiate found a chalice which he said "stank of malevolence, being of gaudy silver with strange glowing runes on its surface. Its stem was fashioned in the shape of grinning Daemons, its tail curled about its leg."
This sounded pretty conclusive and the party set out to explore the abbey and see if they could get into the chamber themselves. Meanwhile, Monteego and Spam spotted movement in the abbey building and informed the party that they were not alone in the monastery. The group snuck up on the abbey building and looked for a door they could use to sneak in from the side or rear. They found the side entrance, peeked inside and found a group of very large and very cranky looking beastmen rummaging through the abbey, clearly searching for something. They were making enough noise themselves that they clearly hadn't heard the party messing about on the other side of the courtyard.
Rigging up a trip line, Bol Pean whistled to get the attention of one of the beasts. Only one seemed to hear and he moved over to investigate. Spotting the dwarf, he ran over towards the door. He did not spot the line however and came stumbling out into the daylight and was immediately cut down in a flurry of arrows and sling stones. Trying again they managed to get the attention of the whole group including one giant, well muscled, armed and armoured specimen which moved to crush anything that dared disturb his work. He did spot the trip line and stopped short in time to start raining blows on Bol Pean. Joey chucked one of his flaming oil bottles at the brute and merely managed to set the dwarf on fire. While Bol Pean practiced his stop, drop, and roll, the brute stepped back to avoid the flames and instead sent his lesser minions in to work over the party. The party battled three gors eventually overpowering them one by one.
Meanwhile Joey went around to the far side of the building, hoping to surprise the beastmen from behind. He entered the abbey from the opposite door and chucked another of his firebombs into the room. This had little effect and the beasts were too busy with the rest of the party to notice. By now, Bol Pean had put himself out and charged back into the fray. He fought valiantly but was pounded flat by the beasts.
While the group peppered the leader's left arm with arrows, Joey snuck up behind him and landed a nasty blow, severely wounding the monster and causing him to drop his weapon. Before the beastmen leader could turn to finish off Joey with his claws, one last arrow caught the brute in his now unarmoured left arm, severing his brachial artery.
After tending to Bol Pean's wounds and stabilizing him enough so that he wouldn't die quite yet, the remainder of the party set about opening the altar. They were able to find the secret door easily enough and descended into the crypt below. The crypt had been ransacked, its contents broken and smashed and copious amounts of blood splattered all over. The relics were smashed and thrown from their niches and one, the one most likely to contain the chalice according to the diary, was empty. Instead of a chalice there were just a couple drops of blood. On the floor in front of the niche was a military officer's sword of excellent craftsmanship. The party took the sword, noting the maker's mark, in hopes of tracking down the origin of its owner.
Outside, the group found a trail leading away from the monastery to the nearby cemetery. Monteego and Spam went to investigate while the others cleaned up and looked after Bol Pean. The elf and halfling found the cemetery wrecked and defiled just like the rest of the place. In the receiving tomb, however, they found a pile of bodies and body parts that looked like they had been hacked apart and thrown in by some madman. Monteego examined the bodies while Spam wretched his lunch outside. Examining the corpses revealed that they all were wearing black military uniforms.
Armed with new evidence and carrying the barely conscious Bol Pean, the party headed back to Altdorf.