"Trespass of Drachenfels": Epilogue

This article is more to give closure and recaptulate some of the things already mentioned. The game ends once the party enters Altdorf with a sculpture from Drachenfels, the party is given a description of their arrival, the price of the statue is calculated and the party is given free reign of the Ludwigplatz to buy and sell their trinkets and goods and to chat with the characters, perhaps gifting Albrecht with some souvenir from the venture. Once the party is finished leveling up and healing, the epilogue sets in, the statue is causing problems at the Obereik mansion. If the party ends up with one of their members trapped in a bottle or possessed by the spirit of Drachenfels, Albrecht can connect them with the appropriate inviduals to aid them.

Albrecht, Otto and Rupert admiring the Drachenfels haul.

Delivering the Statue to Obereik  If the party arrives before Geheiminsnacht: "As you ride over the Obereik cobbles, driving through a street between the narrow fenced off mansions, you ride into the mansion you were destined for. You see the garnders, servants and pumpkin carving lamp ligthers hard at work. Turning from his labourers the steward welcomes you, greeting you with a smile of relief "You're early!" If the party arrives on the day of the celebration: "Your cart's wheels trundle on the cobbles of Obereik's fine streets, town's guard scream after you as you pass them without a word, you slam your horses into the gate of the mansion riding into the courtyard, horses whinnying. All the rich guests gasp in amazement. The dramatic entrance under the green glow of the moons made quite the impression. Merchants and nobles with goblets of wine, dressed up in fancy masks of various monsters looked on from the garden and hedges, as the servants unloaded the great sculptures in the shadow of the great mansion. The gawking host came on to glare at the true masonry of the great enchanter's palace. True remidner of dread on this day, dedicated to Morr. Pumpkin lamps shone bring with crooked smiles all. You were lead away by the steward, who took you to his little office to talk about your reward. The Gehamnisnacht ball was made quite memorable this year, thanks to your timely arrival." If you're late: "You see that the mansion has enjoyed a fine Gehamnisnacht ball. The head shaped pumpkin lamps rotted and stoved in in a nasty bloated fashion, their mischivious faces deformed, laid strewn all over the manor grounds. The steward sighs seeing you arrive. He takes you to his office to talk about your prize. You arrived late, but nevertheless you brought the sculpture, you're entitled to some compensation, your merchant employer demanded it. It was all a gamble after all." A few days later... This event occurse only if the party brought something more substantial than rubble of Drachenfels. The party is called in by their former employer who thanks them for their help but makes a small complaint:

"It was mighty grand to have the sculpture at the party, all my friends found it most spectacular as it was a great sombre and ery reminder of the Empire's dark past. But now that the party is over I want it out of my manor! The creepy statue whispers, weeps blood, moves without being touched, and brings nightmares to those who sleep by it, it even possesed one of my servants, be so kind and get rid of it!"

The players are faced with an option to take the now chain wrapped sculpture and throw it into the river Reik out of town, or give it to the owner of The Juggling Swine whom falls in love with the thing as a form of credit for the taps, he keeps it in the storage from now on as a trophy of the party's daring quest. If the statue is broken open, it turns out that it contains crouching skeletal remains of a human or a halfling, depending on its size. Tavern Exorcism It turns out that the exorcist often employed at Mandredhoff is an old chum of Albrecht the Innkeeper, as wee lads they used to sing in the choir of the cathedral of Sigmar. He summons the exorcist who owes Albrecht a favour and is very attentive and wants to help the party, Otto is used to restrain the possessed individual and the exact same exorcism is conducted at the Juggling Swine after closing hours. One of the tables is used as an impromptu daise. Rules for an exorcism ritual are given in the Book of Corruption. If the ritual is failed and the soul of the victim lost, the possessed begins to attack the party and combat is resolved. Fate points do not save a character from such end.

Visualisation of a potential exorcism.

Soul in a Bottle It turns out that Albrecht nows Maister Ignatius personally. He can get him for a one time session for 3 gold crowns. Upon Albrecht's invitation Master Ignatius comes after a quarter of the day to the "Juggling Swine Tavern" to help the party release the soul of their friend. He is a magister wearing purple robes, white moustache and a mundane scythe. He casts the counter spell of Animus Imprisoned requiring a 29 casting roll, he says you can help him by finding a ribcage of a jailor, to make the spell easier. He prepares in the meantime. You pay him for a day of service so you can spend a quarter day at Morr's Garden rolling for search adding +1o% for every quarter day you spend looking. You must later extract it, you can also ask the priests with gossip if any jailors are burried there. They give you three names, one of a real jailor, one apprentice jailor and one of a man who kidnapped women and kept them in his cellar. For every roll of his however, no matter if he succeeds at his Aetheric Attunment or not, if he uses the ribcage or not, you must roll for Fel to make him attempt it again. You gain +2o% to the first attempt, you can pay a bonus to gain additional +3o% of a double the rate he requested (6 gold crowns), it never goes beyond +3o% but subsequent rolls do not decrease it. If you fail your fellowship roll, maister Ignatius sees no reason to attempt the rescue again, "This is a lost cause" he declares. You can attempt to hire maister Ignatius at any point in the game, with -3o% Fel test spending quarter day trying to locate him. Breaking the bottle costs your friend lost in this plane, unable to find rest. (If you do so you hear an aetherial scream, the cursed character suffers a loss of a fate point, but regains his character, however still suffering the 1d10/2 IP penalty. Characters without any fate points suffer eternal damnation and death.

Freeing a trapped soul is a hectic matter.

And to rearticulate for the sake of conveniance: STATUE VALUE Wounds of the statues represent their value in 2 gc Rubble of Drachenfels- TB 5 Wounds 25| enc; 200 Headless blood imp- TB 2 Wounds 50| enc; 200

Bust of a Bloot-Teufel- TB 2 Wounds 50| enc; 200 Blood imp- TB 2 Wounds 80| enc; 250 Vandalised Bloot-Teufel statue- TB 3 Wounds 100| enc; 1000 Mossy Bloot-Teufel statue- TB 3 Wounds 125| enc; 1000 Preserved Bloot-Teufel statue- TB 3 Wounds 150| enc; 1000 Statue of Constans Drachenfels-  TB 4 Wounds 200| enc; 1500 If a character haggles over the price upon delivery, for every point of success the final price rises by 1o% of the value of the statue. If a character fails the roll -1o% of the value per point of failure is subtracted. With evaluate you can make up for the difference by adding a 1d10 wounds to your statue per success. Bringing the sculpture before the 4th of Nahgeheim grants a hefty +25 gc, making it right on time the same night grants you a bonus of 5o gc which bonus is added to your prize after calculating the haggling bonus, being late costs you 5o% of the reward, calculated at the end of the process (Haggling and Evaluating happens first).

Authorial Comment Do not weep because its over! Im seriously thankful to anyone willing to spare a moment to look on this peculiar project of mine. For some it may seem a meaningless and daft little project, but for me it marks a special time of racking my brains over the various ideas and rethinking what I know about the game I've played for years. A special journey that helped me to figure out how to write games. It was a few long years since I've conceived of the idea and put it to paper and finalised it. I've begun my work on it in 2019. A man loses track of time at a certain point in life. And let me tell you it felt daunting and as if I would never finish it, and at times as if it would take only another night of work to get it done, wheras in hindsight I know how far behind I was. However through perseverence and steadiness and sitting over a peace of paper with no notions coming up I've succeeded and I'm quite glad. I realise how little importance this holds but I'm chuffed. God bless. Kastor.