"Tavern Troubles": The Juggling Swine Tavern

"The street was that of uneven mud covered cobbles of ancient make. Ludwigsplatz, or as most of the residents called it, Fettsackplatz, was a quaint and rather rank cul-de-sack even for Altdorf standards. Grand and ancient sculpture of the Emperor Ludwig stood over the square, with his mindful glare staring at a tavern in the cellar of an off building. "Juggling Swine" for that is the name of the establishment was a rather cosy but rancid beer cellar with an occasional biergarten improvised in the courtyard between the cellar and a few rooms for rent in adjacent building. But that only during warm spring and summer months. Right now it was well into the autumn, and the place was full of drizzles and cold winds blowing from the wicked Grey Mountains. Inside of this beer cellar all the worst sorts of folk would tend to congregate. Mostly those lost in the world, seeking some comfortable corner to do some sombre brooding over dark and thick ale. The place was cold and wet. Despite that its patrons seemed to enjoy it, and would seldom pick a different watering hole. Mostly because the beer was so cheap. But few in the city knew of this place bar those who lived in the vicinity of Ludwigsplatz. Some odd tendency that only those who were a sought after would stumble upon this place. Down stony set of stairs and under that ghastly stuffed "Juggling swine" mascot of the tavern a band of adventuring sorts were gathered over a few drinks..." The player characters find themselves unarmed and unhorsed in one of the affordable drinking establishments of the capital of the Empire. Their mounts stayed at the nearby stables and their main weapons held in one of the city gates. Here the player characters can acquire ale, rooms as well as any beer snacks they can think of, for a reasonable price. They can also ask old Albrecht if he knows of any jobs in town, he's very well informed and has many friends all over the Empire and beyond. Asking for a quest is tantamount with starting "The Trespass of Drachenfels" which will be detailed in upcoming publications. This here is the first of the two map sets of the hub location from which all the chapters would start from. One the players would fill to the brim with trinkets, henchmen, loot and magical artefacts. Whilst slowly through various side-quest antics would damage and destroy the place likely as well. Every room has their equipment catalogued and the tabs are kept on the amount of money spent at the tavern. The tavern has two characters in it to introduce to the players as well as four guests for the time being. There is the owner Albrecht. A moustached portly salt-of-the-earth man, with an extensive network of connections and acquaintances. Sending the players on quests and doling out their ale. As well as Otto the bodyguard bouncer.

Innkeeper (Albrecht of the "Juggling Swine") One of the many of the blessed guild of those who pour one out. The quest givers, the thirst quenchers, the kind souls. A balding portly man, with a thick moustache, wearing a stained leather apron. When faced with brawls or threats he simply waits it out, calling in Otto when trouble really gets out of hand.

WS   |   BS    |   S    |  T    | Ag | Int  |  WP |   Fel                   38         25        28       31      42     43      30      39 A |  W  |  SB  | TB  |  M  |  Mag |  IP  |  FP  

1     15       2       3        4         0         0        0                                                                     Skills: Blather, Charm, Common Knowledge (the Empire +1o%), Consume Alcohol, Drive, Evaluate, Gossip, Haggle, Lip Reading, Perception, Read/Write, Search, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language (Kislevarin, Reikspiel +1o%) Talents: Acute Hearing, Dealmaker, Savvy, Streetwise, Suave. Equipment: Leather Jerkin (Body 1), Hand Weapon (Cudgel). Before the prologue adventure would even be begun, Albrecht would comment over the players staying in the tavern allowing for a transition into a shopping spree at Ludwigsplatz: -"You shouldn't be sitting about like this all gloomy like, I tell you what you go and have a gander at some of our shops why don't you? It's your first time in Altdorf innit? Enjoy it while it lasts, it will wear off after a while. We've got some nice spots you could give a look. For instance there's a weapon's shop nearby, selling rather affordable arms... fitting their price range let's just say that. We have stables nearby if you wish to buy a horse or leave your own mounts or pets under care of our groom. We've got a respectable barber-surgeon living nearby, master Helmut does wonders when it comes to various ailments and sells tonics at very reasonable prices. If you're of the religious sort there is the Shallyan mission, you can buy yourself some prayer beads. We even have a book shop! But the owner is quite a curious fellow, I doubt you'd take to his liking. And in case you're superstitious we have our own Strygany mystic running her mystic babble from her cart for a few pence a card reading... I think that's all the attractions that I think of it... you can always pop out to one of the city markets but they are sturdy walk away from here..." -"Aye, I rent out rooms. You can find them at the other side of the beer garden. There are three in fact... The halflings are moving out today as it happens and I've already changed the sheets! I've got three rooms on the other side of the courtyard. Each of the rooms has a name to make them easier to remember; Söl, Mannslieb or Morrslieb. Each of them accommodates more folks. Söl is my smallest and best lit room, it’s also the cheapest. I’ve got three beds in there, but we can make room for more, you get a chest in there as well. You get the freshest morning sun right into your windows. Mannslieb is a medium priced room for a medium party. That's where the halflings were staying. Morrslieb is my biggest room but the guests... well they’ve been complaining, something ain’t right about that place... odd sounds, odd happenings at night. Peculiar lights, all the sorts of things you’d rather stay away from. I probably would not mention it, I just want all the fuss with moving rooms out of the way if that's what will come to again. Besides that little quirk the rooms are tidy and comfortable, you get a place to keep your stuff nice and safe since you and me would be the only people with a key to it and we’ve got security dusk till down. If anything goes missing from your room I take the responsibility!"

Otto the Bouncer

If Otto is hit on the head his eye falls out and so does his skull plate. If Otto is hit in the

exposed bit of brain from the back and his plate is not in, he suffers a special effect. 1 Shakes; Otto is stunned for 1d6 turns, fidgeting and spasmotically shaking in place.  2 Limp limb; Roll hit location, limb means that the given arm or leg stops working for 1d10 turns, head means Otto loses memory from the last 1d10 days, torso hit means Otto can't feel pain for 1d10 turns. 3-4 Speaking tongues; Otto can't speak any language but a mindless and drooling gibberish for 1d10 days. 5-6 Blindess; Otto goes blind in his other eye for 1d10 turns. Otto used to be an adventurer just like the player characters. His party set out on a meddley of grim and perilous quests from which his friends did not return. Despite his glorious return he did not come back sound on body nor spirit. Now through pent up trauma formed into a mere fat drunk bar moth telling his tales of old glory and squatting in the backrooms of the tavern, acting as a bouncer for the place when trouble starts. Mostly being the focal point of the trouble himself. Otto the Bouncer (Bodyguard) Otto is an old crippled veteran of many battles, he knows his way about Altdorf and the Old World at large, he's battled Undead, Chaos beasts and even seen a few Daemons in his olden days of adventuring. Alas his party was totally massacred during one of their many adventures.

WS   | BS |  S   |  T    | Ag   |  Int  |  WP  |   Fel                    39        20    30     26      28       20       20       20 A |  W  |  SB  | TB  |  M  |  Mag |  IP  |  FP   2     14      3        2        3        0        8        0                                                                      Skills: Dodge Blow, Heal, Intimidate, Perception. Talents: Disarm, Specialist Weapon Group (Parrying), Specialist Weapon Group (Throwing), Street Fighting, Strike to Stun, Very Strong. Equipment: Buckler, Knuckle-dusters, Pair of Throwing Knives, Leather Jack (Torso 1, Arms 1), Main Gauche, Healing Draught, Bottle of Spritis. Special rules: If he gets critically hit on the head, his skull plate falls out, and so does his fake eye.

Halfling Farmer Guests Scrappy little rustics from the Mootland, come to the great pumpkin market before the Gehaiminsnacht, hopping to peddle their great vegetables for grand lanterns to be hung all over the city. Now tired after their long treck, they're resting with a few drinks. Being rather backwards and prejudiced they decline any conversations in a semi-polite fashion and ramble on about their profits in their own little dialect.

WS   |   BS    |    S    |   T    | Ag   |  Int  |  WP  |  Fel 15         35        20         20      40        20       25      30 A |  W  |  SB  | TB  |  M  |  Mag |  IP  |  FP    1    10       2        2        4         0         0       0                                                             Skills: Academic Knowledge (Genealogy), Common Knowledge (Halflings), Gossip, Speak Language (Halfling, Reikspiel), Trade (Farmer) Talents: Night Vision, Resistance to Chaos, Specialist Weapon Group (Sling). Equipment: Vegetable cart in the back of the tavern, Bunch of pumpkins from Mootland, Neat farm clothes, Wheat ear in the hat. Taproom In all actually but a dank cellar filled with tables and chairs. With an ramshackled bar and a long flight of stone stairs leading up into the street and the square outside. Thick stone pillars hold the ceilling up. The little light dimly descends from the street through the three windows or the few tallow candles strewn about the place. Sticky ancient floors make walking to the bar a true crusade for another drink.

The Bar (F-G 1 to 3): A great grotesque mascot of the tavern stands over the bar. Thick stitches barely containing its fat gut. The owner has quite the story to tell about it. If destroyed it erupts into a mist of dust, but burst pig skinsack of woodchips, the skin from the cured head of the pig would make for quite the eerie mask. If you break it however the innkeeper demands a different mascot for the tavern in return. "I won it in a late night game of chance, from an eerie little fellow you see, he'd busy himself turning Taal's little creatures into such macabres for the joy of it. A passion project he says to me, it was that or a hand in a jar, so I took the swine. Halfling Table (A-B 1 to 4): They are chattering in the halfling language, seemingly unwilling to converse with strangers. Communal Barrel of Salted Reik-Eel Chunks (C6): A salty little beer snack you're welcome to grabbing a handful of. A great Marienburg brand burned into the wood of the barrel. Two pence a chunk. Tabs (G3): Crudely kept account of how much is every guest paying, kept by the innkeeper with chalk on the wall of the cellar. Grate (F10): It leads to the sewer, any unwanted liquids are disposed of here. Old ale or washing up water. Posters and notices (D9 and F7): Here the players can find all sorts of mundane daily activity of the city. People selling ladders, thespians advertising their plays, public executions being announced and more. With a few writing utensils they could post their own notice, seeking help. This way the party can acquire henchmen and hirilings. The stairs into cellar are plastered with notices and various advertisements. Henchmen wanted one of the half ripped down old posters says. Upon inspection you hear the innkeeper cry out. “Mighty handy if you ever need something. Any time you need hireling or henchmen for one of your adventures just get some paper and post some up if you feel like it. There’s a plenty of odd folk looking for work in Altdorf and I bet you’re bound to find someone." If the players post a notice seeking a hireling or henchman they spend a 1d6+1 days questioning the locals about their skills and abilities in the cellar over an ale after which time they get 1d6 potential candidates. Each getting a notable feature and a roll for their major statistic. Stone daise (C2): Raised stone daise. It is used as a post for all the tallow candles in the room. Creates a sort of window between the two pillars, would make for difficult terrain. Rickety Door (E1): It leads into the dark storeroom. Shabby Door (A6): It leads out into the street, a thick layer of light emitting from under it, lighting the place up slightly. The slippery uneven rough hewn stone stairs leads up to it. Well Worn Door (G8): It leads outside into the beer garden used ruing the warmer months. Two little pumpkins rest by the exit.

Storeroom A dark room full of cobwebs and dust covered furniture. It also doubles as improvised bedroom of the tavern bouncer. He insists on keeping the place dark. He says its good for his remaining eye. The place is full of unused and damaged bed frames, unopened and empty barrels awaiting transport back to the brewery. A small workshop for repairing the tankards damaged during the many barfights that erupt at the "Juggling Swine." In game terms its primary purpose is to store the goods the party acquires along their journeys. With appropriate places to hide the more eldritch goods away from the prying eyes.

Rickety Door (D7): Leads back into the taproom. Tankard Workshop (F5 to 7): Here the chipped and smashed tankards are brought back into a working shape by Otto in his spare time. Otto's Blanket (F2): Here the wretched bouncer sleeps off his drunkenness, brawls and episodic madness. Sewer Gate (F3): A metal gate, closed with a lock and key carried around by the innkeeper. He might open the door for you if you insist. But one can easily brake it down as well. Albrecht will put it on your tap however. Chest (C1): It is full of pillows and moth eaten blankets as well as a few broken tankards. Sewer Grate (I4): It leads into a sizeable chamber, it takes one to be a halfling or have the contortionism talent to pass through it. Sewer Storage (I7): Closed with a key. It is owned by the innkeeper who is willing to lend it to the players if they have something private they might wish to keep in there under lock and key. Or if they wish to have their private office or room, provided they don't mind the mildew. Sewer Tunnel (H; I; J): The sewer water reaches one up to the waist, or up to a halfling's neck.

Altdorf Sewers (G-H 1 and 2 as well as J6 to 7): One could venture into the Altdorf sewers through here, as well as the stretch of the sewers under the Ludwigplats. (But that would become avilable only in the upcoming "Sewer Sightings" campaign.) Beer Garden Here the beer garden is held during the warm months. The small cluttered grassy courtyard leads to a platform which itself leads into the nearby rooms for rent. For some reason, unknown to the players, the place is cluttered with pumpkins.

Cellar Door (I6 and J7): It is from here that the player characters emerge. Platform (A/B/C from 1 to 3): There is also crawlspace beneath the platform where tables and chairs are stored for autumn and winter, put up into the garden for the summer months. There are three doors leading to corresponding rooms named after small metal plaques nailed into them: Mannslieb (A1), Morrslieb (C1) and Söl (A2). Totem of Madness (G1): A jester's skull filled with nails stuck on a pole, with a small booklet chained to it. The book is actually just a heretical text you player characters can read. It has no daemonic power but failing a +1o WP test causes a point of insanity from the mind numbing Mallean heresy. Tree Trunk (F2): The blackened stump, it was once a proud oak. Vegetable Cart (H6): A small man operated cart for the transportation of produce. Pox Rat (E1): Hung up by its tail, the poor thing seems to have succumbed to the green pox. Touching it requires a +1o% Toughness roll against disease. (As a note for the homebrew for plague detailed in an advneture below, the pox rat causes 2 TB damage of Greenpox) Quintain (A6): It is has a head fashioned from a pumpkin. Famously the most suitable vegetable similacrum of a humanoid cranium. Quintain At-Arms (B7): This one has a bent stahl-helm sallet. Shed (A8 and A9): The roof of the shed is covered with arrows. Somone was practicing their shooting.

Outhouse (E10): The outhouse has the “Bokke of Stary Signes and Constelationes” which upon visiting you read one of the pages, yet for some reason the book becomes the page poorer. The book contains the origins and meanings of various star-signs and their mythologies as accounted by Imperial folklore, dwarven loremasters, colleges of astromancies and ancient elven myth. (I might possibly share the contents of the book in the future, it is a foreshadowing of another adventure) There is also a sealed bottle of healing draught inside. Pumpkin Barricade (H and I from 3 to 5): The stoutest pumpkins with the thickest hides are piled up into a roadblock. The players must smush their way through them. Through a see of orange, vegetable viscera.

Bedrooms In total three different communal rooms. Morrslieb, Mannslieb and Söl. Each room provides more beds than the next, but each subsequent one has less and less light. Morrslieb room being particularly queer, to the point that the innkeeper insists on not letting the players rent it without their express acknowledgment of the peculiar nature of the place. It was there that Otto found the hidden heretical tome, secreted right under the floorboards by one of the occupants, who one day simply disappeared without paying for his room. Each room provides the party with an empty chest with a key, to store their belongings as well as a beds. Upon renting one, the party is given a single key, Albrecht keeps a spare.

Morrslieb Room (G8): There are four double beds in the room. Mannslieb Room (E8): There are two double beds in the room. Söl Room (E9): There are three beds in the room.

QUEST: ADVENTURING BOOTCAMP Detailed below is the first adventure the party is taken out for. It was designed with novice players in mind, so that we could explain the inner workings of combat, damage systems and homebrews in real combat, which would be still narratively facilitated. The party is approached by Albrecht, who claims that Otto had something prepared for them. Not long after the old bouncer kicks his way in a rather challenging mood. Obviously slightly intoxicated he makes quite a few remarks... "I bet you fancy yourselves adventurers don't you? I've faced down the faces of goblinoids, beastmen and the undead horrors, lost my party in the Worlds Edge Mountains stealing loot. Seen horrors beyond man's imagination! This eye I lost to an elfin arrow! The back of my head is missing as I was struck down by a hacking axe of a black orc! I bet you lot don't even know what that feels like! Huh?! Meet me at the biergarten in a couple of minutes! We'll see what you're made of!" If the party decides on following the maddened bouncer out into the beer garden they are welcomed by a slured cry: "You're probably wondering why have I brought you here. It is for the purpose of becoming true Militi Sigmaris. True warriors of Sigmar, roaming adventurers of Reikland, that's what I brought you here for!" The whole time Otto remains perched on the platform leading up to the three rooms for rent. Overlooking the whole of the beer garden, commenting on the party's progress. The mad looking former-adventurer leans dangerously over a banister of a tall standing platform. ”To me you’re all as fresh and green as spring tide onions, but we’ll change that! Get you ready for what prowls out there, beyond the city walls! If you think that listening to ramblings of an old half-mad drunken former soldier is below you, guess what chaps, adventuring ain't for you!" Fighting: "Here on this proving ground I shall teach you in the face of heaven dwelling Sigmar himself, how the deeds of battle are done in the land of the Empire proper. Come on be on guard, first and foremost smash those nasty pumpkins blocking your way, you'll find that smashing will be your main tool in adventuring. Be it heads of goblins, barricades or locks, things sometimes need a good bash. Slaughter these foolish vegetables! You can deal with most of the challenges gods throw at you with your talents and skills, swimming, riding and all such, some things even if you don't feel you have a knack for and haven't done before turns out aren't that hard. There are all sorts of nasty critters that roam the Old World, the chaos worshipping barbarians, cruel orcs of the mountains, flesh eating ogres and trolls, giants of all sorts, daemons and things that your meagre adventuring mind would not know how to process, crawling in the sewers under our very feet...” Each player will be rewarded for each pumpkin destroyed under Otto's call to arms. Combat commentaries: As the pumpkin genocide is going on, Otto comments from his perch. "There are different ways to approaching combat as there are many types of foes you encounter"

"Don't push it, take a second, this pumpkin is not going anywhere. Take a deep breath and strike when you feel ready! Measure that blade's trajectory to your comfort before you commit to a strike! Take aim, and don't pull your punches, breath in the frenzy! These puny vegetables won't fight back, go all out! Smash them into bits!" "One of the simplest, and by extent most useful strategies is to charge your opponent screaming, wind-milling your hand weapon. Even orcs and beastmen do it and their noggin's little better than that of a domesticated sheep. It gives you the necessary advantage provided you cease the initiative" "In turn if your foe feels like he's taking it too far, just put up your guard and wait till he runs out of breath or your allies come to your aid! There's nothing shameful about that it's called tactics!" "Take advantage of your mobility, they're not moving anywhere, outnmuber them! It is always a good policy to outnumber your opponents!" "Remember to keep the things you need in battle at hand, if you're not readied you might be in trouble... scrambling for a healing draught or a shield mid combat can cost you precious time you could spend beating on folks!" "More advanced fighters can put double the hurt on their foes, but then again they cannot take the joys of parrying if their enemy is fighting back. This is why parrying stance is important if you did not bring a shield or an off hand dagger." "But now, you say, what can I do to a clever fellow trying standing guard and parrying with a fencing pose and all. Simple... feint him! Good old 'You thought I was going to hit you in the leg?' and then you go for the jugular, nice and cruel like!" "You can always delay your strike, waiting for an appropriate moment to strike! If you get enough time to prepare yourself for receiving them as they approach you, unless they decide to charge..." "If you ever need to move about the place, like if for instance you fall over, a bad place to be during a melee I tell. You better do your darndest to stand up." Otto bombards the players with useful tidbits of strategies and options during combat so that possibly players might remember them in upcoming fights. It is all about veiling the game mechanics in in lore banter, contextualising and making sure players might remember some of the moves they can pull off. Running: "Everyone knows that of all the races, elf folk are the springy most runners in a race bet on the fey lot, halfings may be short but they run as fast with their little trotters as any Reikland peon. Dwarfs are the slowest, you can outrun a dwarf with ease the stocky buggers. No offence. That’s how most racial enemies of the dwarfs take them out. Of the Imperial stock the slowest runners are the Sitrlanders but everyone knows that they run all funny like. Most say it's cause of the kruts..." He scratches his head plate leaning back in a stretch. Drinking: "First thing have a drink before you go and shoot to steady the hand..." "Hey you, I can see you pretending to drink, bottoms up champion!" "Oh the blessed ale, the Empire would have crumpled without this sacred liquid. The Man-God himself drank it, Emperors drank it, Theogonists drank it, and so will you. The drink inspires to violent deeds, whenever in question, ask the sacred inspiration of the quaff. The sombre ale will lead you to adventure, you just have to drink enough. On average a Reiklander can drink around four tankards and still keep it good, after that it's a different story, after we're done how about we have a little drink aye?" Otto welcomes the party to a free poured beer on him. A few ready tankards rest on the improvised shooting range.

Flying: "Oy it's a dove of Shallya, probably escaped the hospice dovecote. The thing with flying enemies is that they can decide how far away they wish to be from you. Some monstrosities can't really fly and all they can muster up is a measly float, these are no joke either, jumping in and out of combat. So it happens that most of us common folk don't fly so the gods had it figured..." he proceeds to shoot at the dove with the rusted peace of handcannone he borrowed from the innkeeper, a nasty peace of rust, with barrel rings poking away broken, and splintered wood... BLAM "Could 'ave gone one of two ways...  now you give it a try, kill that cooing pigeon, before it befouls all the courtyard..."

Dove of Shallya To some a quaint sign of peace and healing, to some no better than a flying rat.

WS   |   BS    |    S    |   T    | Ag   |  Int  |  WP  |    Fel 25          0           6         4       38       10       10          0 A |  W  |  SB  | TB  |  M  |  Mag |  IP  |  FP    1     2         0      0      2/6        0        0       0 Skills: Perception +2o%. Talents: Flee! Keen Senses, Flier. Shooting: "To those of you knew to the Empire, this is a handgonne” He lifts his hand up with a heavy rifle in his hand, an old looking piece, rusted and splintered old as all hell, it looks like it remembers the Vampire wars. “A weapon of black powder. Shootin's a big deal when it comes to adventuring, you can inflict most damage with the new creations of the Nuln forges of war. Not to mention what those crazy dwarf-folk send into battle. Bombs and all sorts of things. Here, have a go at the little shootin' range I’ve cooked up for ya. Here! He throws you the rifle and then a powder horn with a satchel of shot. Squish all those pumpkins over the fence with a ranged weapon be so kind! If you run out of ammo, get creative, anything can be a projectile if you put your mind to it!" The satchel contains enough powder and ball for eight shots, the gun has the experimental quality. Armour: "That pumpkin with a helmet on it, I think it fancies itself a knight of the verdant field, smash this hubris filled orange fruit of Rhya with that handgun. Let black powder rule supreme! Armour in the Old world comes in few varieties, first we heave the leather armour, the common thick boiled cow and pig skins the commoners and crude races adorn to the battle it is also used as a padding for other more advanced armour, such as chain-mail. It's mostly gone out of fashion around the crusades for Arabya but the pesky Brettonians just over the Grey Mountains to the east still stubbornly insist on wearing it. It's a good middling armour. Then comes the plates, the heavy duty field of battle stuff. Nothin' protects the noggin like a good old hunk of steel. But the metal of the common men is nothin' in comparison of the wonders of the world that the arcane smiths of the devilish races of the north can put together, or the mischievous dwarfs in their mountains, they meddle with metallurgy way beyond the ken of a common Reiklander."

Lore commentaries:

"It is a good deed to kill a pumpkin. On Geheimnisnacht eve folks say, when Morrslieb smiles onto a particularly evil pumpkin, it can turn it into an evil monster known as a squig. They run around with flashy yellow eyes and a maw of teeth size o' daggers gobbling down all they find. They ally themselves wit' the evil goblins from the hills, but roddin' hell they taste amazing as a roast..."

Plague Homebrew and disease mechanics; Plague and plague prevention are a rather big theme during the upcoming adventure. For its sake I offer a homebrew expansion to the disease rules. Instead of rolling on Toughness whenever faced by a fomite, each location depending on its type causes a set amount of TB damage. For instance touching a diseased rat might casue 2 TB Greenpox damage and touching a Nurlging might cause 4 TB Neighlish rot damage. It is still a roll for every turn of touching the diseased object but it gives some leway for tougher characters with less disese ridden objects. The damage does not lower Toughness nor the TB. Drinking a healing draught or visiting a doctor is tantamount to clearing the TB damage. "Dun touch that furry bugger, he's got the Green Pox! When it comes to it don't breath around it too, and generally watch out for those furry ones alright. Cities of the Empire are not the cleanest and these lil fellas tend to spread all sorts of nasty things. I've seen dozens of my fellows perish and Hostenhoff siege thanks to what these nasty buggers brought into the siege camps! However keeep your humours in order and you's have nothing to worry about, the foul wind shan't claw into these who's are in good form" Insanity: "There are things out there that can send you straight into the tower of the mad ones. I knew a good lot of 'venturin types that ended their life of excess in the tower of fools at Ostende. And sure as all things you don't want to end up in that tower. That little handbook the innkeep found stashed under the floor boards of a traveller that took to live in the tavern for few weeks, give it a look. One night the fellow set out into the dark and never returned. He left this behind, we's thought no need callin' the witch-hunters as the whole thing seemed a little rotten. We's thought the roddin' things cursed as the sun shines and that's all there needs to be known. Go and have peak inside, it whispers to you and shows you things... it feels as if worms wriggled in your very head, a toughenin' experience!" Reading the heretical tome takes a +1o% WP roll against 1 IP. Halfling Brawl: After the whole bootcamp scene is concluded, suddenly the doors to the beer cellar open. Four halfling farmers from the inn, now well boozed up eye the scene of pumpkin destruction in terror. "By Esmeralda's sweet sour wine what have ye done! Ye mad longshanks! We've brought them here all the way from the Moot! Who gave you the right! Weeks it took us! All our precious gords!" They cry and scream and whine in terror, touching the butchered, emptied shells in disbelief. "We've endured enough abuse at the hands of your kind! Put 'em up longshanks! We'll have your guts for garters! By the time we're done with you, you'll be the vegetable!" The halflings are absolutely intent on violence, the players can put up a struggle or simply explain that it's Otto who's responsible with a simple fellowship test, but the old veteran calls out after the aid of the party. "They are coming after me, defend me adventurers! I'm sorry about what I have said earlier! Beat these repulsive creatures back!" This part of the scenario allows for putting the above mentioned combat skills and hints into practice. Otto can still give some useful hints during the fight. The halflings will break if at least two of them suffered a major critical hit or three of them were brought to zero wounds. Healing: Otto stomps his wooden leg saying: "Good job with those halflings, the little things may seem harmless, but they are a cruel and vengeful lot at times, especially the ones from the Moot" "Oy, I see you got bruised up a tad, go to the loo, there should be some healing-draughts knocking about, go and 'ave a swig will ya! Getting stomped is a thing of daily in the life of an adventurer, don't think it the last time you'll need this green goody. You can buy some at the apothecary not far from here. If you're really ill however, or suffer a major wound, a drink will not do. A visit to a Shallyan temple if you're strapped for coin or a local barber-surgeon is the way to go. Be as it is, the Old World is wrought with evil and peril, and murk and danger come to think of it. But be as it may, there is a load of things lurking in the darkness of the forest and the tall caverns of the mountain crags, that just waits to bite your 'ead off. The wicked secret cudgels and daggers of the man eating mutants, axes of the daemon praising beast-folk, and even the puked out foulness that flows out of trolls. Not to mention nigh daily brawls in the taverns, from this way of life don't expect to retire with all your limbs intact!" This is the end of the prologue adventure. Otto goes back into the inn to treat himself to a drink. 100 Experience to distribute; Role play 0-5xp; For every destroyed pumpkin 1xp/20xp; Personal glory only. Big pumpkin pile TB 1; wounds 20 Medium pumpkin TB 1 wounds 10 Small pumpkin TB 1 Wounds 5 For defeating the halflings 35xp; Whole party. For finishing the course 45xp; Personal glory only. -Reading the heretical tome 5xp -Jumping over the flame 5xp -Shooting down the white dove of peace 10xp -Getting drunk during the course 5xp -Breaking the armoured pumpkin 5xp -Successfuly healing yourself 5xp