The Enemy Within Remixed, Season 2: Death on the Reik (campaign report)
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:17 am
After the holiday break, Season 2 of my remixed The Enemy Within campaign – based on Death on the Reik, mostly – begun last week. I’m still working out some of the plotlines.
Campaign thread on RPGNet, including recaps of Season 1 and details on how I’ve modified the setting and plot
I also talk about some of my reworked plots on this forum:
Rethinking the Tzeentch cults
The Red Crown and the Wittgenstein meteorite
But anyway, on with the show.
Season 2, Session 1 : Messing about on the river
We picked up right where Season 1 ended, with the Apollonia sailing out of Bogenhafen at midnight headed for Altdorf, where Joost had his next errands. During the night, the full, skull-faced Morrslieb was obscured by clouds and mists for a few hours. When the sky cleared up, it had reverted to its regular state of a new moon.
The ambushed riverboat
In the morning, as the river winded through heavy woods, the travellers found a corpse floating down the river sporting two crossbow bolts and, after the next turn, an apparently abandoned and drifting riverboat. It turned out to be the site of a recent fight, with several dead on deck. The forest was silent, except for a single owl hooting as they approached. Marike had a distinct tingling sense that the danger was not over yet.
No one answered their call, but something sounded briefly below deck. They boarded warily, with weapons drawn.
As Aenlinn and Wernhart entered the darkened cabin, they were attacked by two grotesquely disfigured men - one covered in fur and one with a beak-like face – while Said and Marike outside saw what first looked like a huge bird taking flight from the trees. The “bird” turned out to be another mutant: a winged woman with claw-like feet, diving to the attack with a spear.
Aenlinn and Wernhart made short work of the mutants in the cabin – Wernhart managed to draw the hairy one between him and the bird-man, who couldn’t stop his attack in the cramped space in time, mortally wounding his comrade – and after another brief fight the adventurers also managed to kill the winged woman.
Meanwhile, up on deck, Zima had been attacked by a pair of long tentacles slithering over the side and threating to drag her overboard. With some help from the others, she cut herself free and they could see what looked like a man with tentacles for arms swimming away. Aenlinn put him down with a crossbow bolt.
The aftermath
Subsequent investigation found the dead former owners, whom Said and Joost turned out to be passingly familiar with – the trader Fritz Siegler and his son and daughter-in-law – and a cargo of wool, as well as a small arsenal of weapons and some armour.
The captains explained that usual practice is to take over a salvaged boat and work it until any heirs of the previous owners can be traced, keeping any profits made in the meantime as a salvage fee. The closest place to inquire for relatives would be Altdorf, and there – if not earlier – they should be able to sell off the wool. Said and Courage, in particular, were excited at the prospect of generating some actual income.
So they decided to take on the new boat, at the very least to Altdorf, and take the Sieglers to the next town for burial.
Sailing onward
As the little convoy sailed on, further in the morning they passed Castle Grauenberg, and towards the evening reached the signal tower (see Season 1, Session 4-5). It was apparently finished now but locked, barred and apparently abandoned. Courage and Aenlinn took the time to make sure the iron cylinder key still opened the secret door to the observatory under the tower, but they didn’t enter.
Some notes:
- We were supposed to play with the full group, but once more two players dropped out on very short notice, this time the twins’. That’s why I postponed most of the discussion about where to go and what to do next for the next session, which will also be longer since we’ll play on a Sunday.
- I’d made some tweaks to the combat rules (again, I’m using a BRP homebrew mixing and matching from several rulesets) to make combat a little faster. That seemed to work somewhat; the fight with the mutants on the boat was over quickly – though part of it was due to the PCs winning a fairly easy victory using strength of numbers and good dice rolls.
- The players were (pleasantly, it seemed) surprised I threw them into a fight right away, having expected a slow start to the new “season”. Actually things will be quieter for a session or two now, but this might help keep them a bit more on their toes.
- Speaking of what’s coming next, I’m trying to plot out the next session now. The PCs haven’t properly argued out and decided what to do next beyond taking the boat to Altdorf, but I think it’s fairly likely that Marike at least will insist on returning to visit Professor Bletzen to learn more about the alchemical recipes she left for her mentor, as well as the new findings made during the journey.
- - The fact that they’ve already visited the observatory means I have to decide what Prof. Bletzen will make of the astronomical and alchemical notes they brought from there. (Though I could buy time by saying that will need some further study while they go off adventuring for a while.
- - Since the PCs never met Elvyra Kleinestun in Bogenhafen, I’ll skip the kidnapping episode in Weissbruck (I might reuse it later on if I need a friendly NPC kidnapped at some point).
- - Apart from the cultists starting to try contacting “Esther Lieberung” again, I’m thinking of throwing in an encounter in Altdorf with the criminal gang that both Said and Wernhart have a history with – Said, in particular, needs to pay off some more of his debts to it. I’m having some ideas about using this to foreshadow a possible future plotline, loosely inspired by the old Hellblazer comic Son of Man. (Briefly put: a few years back, the gang boss ordered Wernhart to save his dying daughter – which turned out to be impossible. In desperation, Wernhart enlisted the aid of a necromancer to revive her and then legged it. The undead daughter may become an important figure later on, and I thought of having her make a brief cameo now.)
Campaign thread on RPGNet, including recaps of Season 1 and details on how I’ve modified the setting and plot
I also talk about some of my reworked plots on this forum:
Rethinking the Tzeentch cults
The Red Crown and the Wittgenstein meteorite
But anyway, on with the show.
Season 2, Session 1 : Messing about on the river
We picked up right where Season 1 ended, with the Apollonia sailing out of Bogenhafen at midnight headed for Altdorf, where Joost had his next errands. During the night, the full, skull-faced Morrslieb was obscured by clouds and mists for a few hours. When the sky cleared up, it had reverted to its regular state of a new moon.
The ambushed riverboat
In the morning, as the river winded through heavy woods, the travellers found a corpse floating down the river sporting two crossbow bolts and, after the next turn, an apparently abandoned and drifting riverboat. It turned out to be the site of a recent fight, with several dead on deck. The forest was silent, except for a single owl hooting as they approached. Marike had a distinct tingling sense that the danger was not over yet.
No one answered their call, but something sounded briefly below deck. They boarded warily, with weapons drawn.
As Aenlinn and Wernhart entered the darkened cabin, they were attacked by two grotesquely disfigured men - one covered in fur and one with a beak-like face – while Said and Marike outside saw what first looked like a huge bird taking flight from the trees. The “bird” turned out to be another mutant: a winged woman with claw-like feet, diving to the attack with a spear.
Aenlinn and Wernhart made short work of the mutants in the cabin – Wernhart managed to draw the hairy one between him and the bird-man, who couldn’t stop his attack in the cramped space in time, mortally wounding his comrade – and after another brief fight the adventurers also managed to kill the winged woman.
Meanwhile, up on deck, Zima had been attacked by a pair of long tentacles slithering over the side and threating to drag her overboard. With some help from the others, she cut herself free and they could see what looked like a man with tentacles for arms swimming away. Aenlinn put him down with a crossbow bolt.
The aftermath
Subsequent investigation found the dead former owners, whom Said and Joost turned out to be passingly familiar with – the trader Fritz Siegler and his son and daughter-in-law – and a cargo of wool, as well as a small arsenal of weapons and some armour.
The captains explained that usual practice is to take over a salvaged boat and work it until any heirs of the previous owners can be traced, keeping any profits made in the meantime as a salvage fee. The closest place to inquire for relatives would be Altdorf, and there – if not earlier – they should be able to sell off the wool. Said and Courage, in particular, were excited at the prospect of generating some actual income.
So they decided to take on the new boat, at the very least to Altdorf, and take the Sieglers to the next town for burial.
Sailing onward
As the little convoy sailed on, further in the morning they passed Castle Grauenberg, and towards the evening reached the signal tower (see Season 1, Session 4-5). It was apparently finished now but locked, barred and apparently abandoned. Courage and Aenlinn took the time to make sure the iron cylinder key still opened the secret door to the observatory under the tower, but they didn’t enter.
Some notes:
- We were supposed to play with the full group, but once more two players dropped out on very short notice, this time the twins’. That’s why I postponed most of the discussion about where to go and what to do next for the next session, which will also be longer since we’ll play on a Sunday.
- I’d made some tweaks to the combat rules (again, I’m using a BRP homebrew mixing and matching from several rulesets) to make combat a little faster. That seemed to work somewhat; the fight with the mutants on the boat was over quickly – though part of it was due to the PCs winning a fairly easy victory using strength of numbers and good dice rolls.
- The players were (pleasantly, it seemed) surprised I threw them into a fight right away, having expected a slow start to the new “season”. Actually things will be quieter for a session or two now, but this might help keep them a bit more on their toes.
- Speaking of what’s coming next, I’m trying to plot out the next session now. The PCs haven’t properly argued out and decided what to do next beyond taking the boat to Altdorf, but I think it’s fairly likely that Marike at least will insist on returning to visit Professor Bletzen to learn more about the alchemical recipes she left for her mentor, as well as the new findings made during the journey.
- - The fact that they’ve already visited the observatory means I have to decide what Prof. Bletzen will make of the astronomical and alchemical notes they brought from there. (Though I could buy time by saying that will need some further study while they go off adventuring for a while.
- - Since the PCs never met Elvyra Kleinestun in Bogenhafen, I’ll skip the kidnapping episode in Weissbruck (I might reuse it later on if I need a friendly NPC kidnapped at some point).
- - Apart from the cultists starting to try contacting “Esther Lieberung” again, I’m thinking of throwing in an encounter in Altdorf with the criminal gang that both Said and Wernhart have a history with – Said, in particular, needs to pay off some more of his debts to it. I’m having some ideas about using this to foreshadow a possible future plotline, loosely inspired by the old Hellblazer comic Son of Man. (Briefly put: a few years back, the gang boss ordered Wernhart to save his dying daughter – which turned out to be impossible. In desperation, Wernhart enlisted the aid of a necromancer to revive her and then legged it. The undead daughter may become an important figure later on, and I thought of having her make a brief cameo now.)