Once back on the barge, the party take stock, unbuckle their armor and relax. Dumpling knocks up some stew and everyone has a rum while they discuss recent events. A watch is set and everyone gets some rest.
The next day, it’s a beautiful summer’s morning and everyone decides it’s about time they had a day off.
They stay moored near the signal tower everyone spends the day fishing, relaxing and chatting. All except Wandy, who wants to spend some time studying one of the Grimoires found in the library.
Just before bedtime, with the sun going down, Wandy bursts onto deck with his hands in the air,
“I’ve got it!” He shouts, and looks joyous as he explains to his friends that he has worked out how to channel balls of flame to burst from his hands!
Drinks are poured as discussions and plans go on into the night.
Everyone is slightly nervous, as the week that was given for Werner to hand over 20,000 gold passes by…
The plan is to head to Castle Wittgenstein and find the meteor.
The boat is readied, and they set sail south, back towards Kemperbad.
It’s high summer and it’s a lovely few days sailing. On the third day, in the afternoon a River Patrol boat comes by and the sergeant insists on a boarding and search. No one is worried as there is no contraband on board, and they explain that they are off to Kemperbad for pleasure purposes. They are heavily armored and the patrol wants to know why, but once Werner gets talking about his latest bounty he’s taken and his good work for the people of Kemperbad, a rapport is struck and they are bid farewell and good luck.
Apart from the odd trade barge and some fishing boats as they near Kemperbad it’s easy going.
Fearful of reprisals for the overdue threats to Werner’s life, they opt to bypass Kemperbad as swiftly as possible and head straight to the castle.
A few days later, the ominous presence of Castle Wittgenstein can be seen looming in the distance on the cliffs casting a shadow over the Reik. They slowly approach the rocky edges of the river and head to the small disused wharf on the bank beneath the village.
Wittgendorf is sorry place, ruined, overgrown and broken. Dilapidated shacks and broken buildings make up most of the village.
Dumpling and Elvis stay on the boat as usual and everyone grabs their gear and jumps off.
Within a few minutes of disembarking, they are surrounded by filthy, scrawny beggars grasping at their clothes begging for food and money. They push them away and offer various lies about going to fetch some money and not being able to give them anything, but the beggars continue to harass them nevertheless.
With their new entourage, they climb the path up the hill of the embankment to the main part of the village.
Upon reaching the top, they see a beautiful looking woman in blue, sat on a white horse, surrounded by guards. One of the beggars is bleeding out with a missing limb while the guards manhandle one of the villagers. He calls out to the party but they don’t intervene and watch how the events unfold.
Gnoblar realises that this woman has an uncanny family resemblance to the portraits seen in Dagmar’s study.
The guards bind the man, place him on the back of a horse and begin to make their way towards the castle as the woman throws the party a cold hard stare.
Our heroes follow the woman and the guards up the path walking behind, where Gnoblar shouts,
“You a relative of Dagmar are you?”
The woman turns her head and throws another cold, hard, stare but they continue up the path.
At this point the guys decide to stop following and head back to the centre of the village. They’ve seen a large ruined temple to the north of the village and it looks like a place of interest.
After watching a dog kill a beggar then run off with his arm, then the other beggars pick him up and carry him off, they head across the little bridge towards the temple.
The temple is the largest building in Wittgendorf, at the north of the village just over a little stream.
Werner, Rowlocks, Gnoblar, Wandy and Durak step through the foyer and into the main temple area. It’s the first time since they’ve arrived that they have had any sort of positive feeling. It’s clear upon entering the abandoned temple that it was once a temple of Sigmar, the founder of the empire who is revered as a god.
In the main room is a large alter which stands on a raised dais and behind it is a skillfully carved statue of Sigmar himself, arm raised in as though in blessing, and to either side are two strangely lit lanterns in stands.
Everyone begins to search the area and Rowlocks discovers a large key upon the alter next to a large leathebound book. Wandy comes over to look at the book and reveals that it is a retelling of the legend of Sigmar.
Whilst examining the book, Wandy notices an ancient parchment underneath. He picks it up and reads it aloud.
It describes part of the legend of Sigmar which foretells his return to save the Empire in its hour of direst need.
When Wandy finishes reading it, the lanterns flare brightly and the statue seems to glitter with intelligence and life. Wandy hears a voice, “That hour is fast approaching, will you be ready?”
“I will be ready,” replied Wandy.
Everyone looks at Wandy wondering who he’s talking to and what he is on about..
The voice replies to him, “I shall give you a sign, go now and find the source of the chaos that has blighted my lands.”
The lanterns flare once more and the statue returns to it’s normal looking self.
Wandy is awash with flow of some sort of spiritual power and he feels strong and fearless.
Everyone else looks puzzles as Wandy begins to explain what’s just happened.
The party is just about to search through one of the two side doors when Werner takes one last look at the statue, and in a moment of inspiration he pulls at the statues raised arm. Amazingly, it pulls down, thuds and creaks can be heard and the alter begins to lower into the darkness below leaving a hole.
Everyone gathers round and peers into the darkness. They decide that Werner should light a torch and drop down and see what’s there. He’s a good climber and in no time he is beneath the temple.
It’s dark, damp and dismal and Werner is in the crypts beneath the temple. The place is smashed and ruined and remnants of former priests resting places are scattered about with gnawed human bones all over the floor. The niches where the bodies once laid are empty apart from one which remains untouched, although he does see a poorly dug tunnel at the back of one of the niches.
The untouched niche bears a plaque with some writing, but Werner can’t read so he heads back to the hole and shouts up to say what he can see.
Gnoblar jumps down and goes to investigate.
" Here lyes the body of Siegfried von Kesselring, Loyal servante of Sigmar. An honoured Templar and man of courage"
The others come down into the crypt and come to take a look. When Wandy approaches he sees the words on the plaque appear to glow.
After three, they slide off the lid of the ancient coffin.
Inside is the skeleton of a knight dressed in rusted plate. It is clear that it has been here for a long time, however, on his breast is a shining long sword sheathed in a gem encrusted scabbard which seems remarkably intact.
Wandy picks up the sword and attempts to remove the blade from its sheath, but, despite his best efforts he is unable to pull out the blade.
Gnoblar takes the sword from Wandy, closes his eyes and pulls the sword. The sword comes easily out of the scabbard and he holds it aloft. It is in perfect condition, keen edged and shiny.
Along its blade runes glow. Durak, who is in awe of the blades craftsmanship reads the dwarven runes – Barrakul – hope of the mountains. As Gnoblar moves the sword the blade seems to shift in and out of reality, with only the glowing runes visible as it flickers.
Wow. Everyone looks at it mesmerised for a few moments before Gnoblar places it back in its scabbard and the decide to move on.
At the back of the crypt a sloped tunnel raises and the decide to head that way.
It leads to an old mausoleum which is in ruins, the sarcophagi have all been opened and the corpses removed. The outward door of the mausoleum leads to the graveyard at the back of the temple. A strange fog hangs around the graveyard and the vast majority of the graves have been dug up and the corpses are gone.
With this, they decide to head back into the crypt and investigate the roughly dug tunnel Werner found. Durak points out that is is a poorly made tunnel.
They crouch down and follow the tunnel for some time before coming out, back in the village at the back of one of the shacks.
Keen to explore the other areas of the temple they haven’t yet investigated, the party head back to the temple and explore the doors to either side of the alter room inside.
The rest of the temple is mainly ruined rooms of the old priests, kitchens, store rooms and cupboards.
The only room that remains untouched is locked. Wandy uses his arcane powers to unlock it magically, and straight after they realise that the large key they found earlier fits the lock perfectly!
Once inside they discover the temple library and priests study.
There are shelves and shelves of scrolls and books that seem to be in no particular order at all. Keen to learn as much as possible, Wandy and Gnoblar, the academics of the group, set about reading through as much as possible and piecing together the information. This takes several hours.
Wandy and Gnoblar learn of the demise of the area around the castle. Once a rich area with an abundance of crops and fine wines, but following the exploits of Dagmar, the area becomes twisted, barren and mutated, plagued with storms, warped flora and fauna and eventual ruin.
After relaying the sorry tale to the others, Wandy takes the time to study the vaulted ceiling with its arcane script. It tells the history of the temple, built on the site of one of Sigmar’s legendary battles. It also details the last stand of Von Kesselring, the former owner of Gnoblar’s new sword, and how he valiantly held the temple against a horde of beastmen and chaos warriors until reinforcements arrived, fatally wounded in the process.
It’s getting late after all this research and everyone would like to get back to the safety of the Jolly Nobber for the night and consider the events of the day.
As they head back through the shit hole of a village, Durak notices someone watching them.
They see a man, who appears not to be a beggar or a poverty stricken villager, and they head over for a chat. It’s Jean Rousseaux, the village physician, and he apologises for not coming to see them earlier, and after some further pleasantries he offers them to come visit him tomorrow at his house when he’s not so busy. The party agrees and heads off back to the boat.
It’s good to be home but everyone’s a bit on edge. They takes turns on watch and Wandy places a magic alarm on the boats boarding area.
It’s an uneventful night, and after a nice breakfast from Dumpling everyone gets there stuff together and heads back out to the village for a further look around.
Once again surrounded by beggars, they head to have a look at the doctors house, although they arn’t scheduled to meet him till later, curiosity gets the better of them and they head over for a look at his house.
The house isn’t as run down as all the other shacks and they stand around and watch for a short while. They see beggars entering the back yard, and then, after a few minutes, leave carrying blue bottles. Now they think about it, they’ve seen quite a few blue bottles laying around the village in the dirt.
Just as they begin to discuss this, Wandy springs into action grabbing everyone’s attention – the boat!! The alarm is going off and they’ve specifically told Dumpling not to go near it!
Quick!! To the wharf!!
Rushing down the slope towards the wharf the gang can see a commotion at the barge. Dumpling is distressed, standing on the wharf holding Elvis while heavily armoured guards and men at arms swarm the boat. There’s twenty or so, most are mounted brandishing crossbows.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Shouts Werner, as everyone rushes to the riverside.
Immediately, crossbows are pointed at our heroes, and one of the guards, who is dressed head to toe in black plate mail responds.
“You scum have not paid the toll to use the wharf at the castle, so your boat is impounded until further notice, so I suggest you fuck off or your filthy carcasses will be feeding the crows!”
Werner is enraged, Gnoblar tries to parlay, explaining that they were unaware of the toll and they would be willing to pay, but it’s no good, the sergeant isn’t having it. Dumpling is in a state apologising, but it’s no good.
At the risk of starting a fight they cannot win, Rowlocks calms the situation, quietly saying to let them take it, they know where the barge is going and we are planning on heading to the castle at some point, we should try and get it back later.
The situation is worrying, all their belongings and supplies are on board, not to mention the small fortune hidden in the secret compartment.
The party are helpless as they watch the Jolly Nobber sail up the Reik into the distance as the guards laugh, climb back on their horses are head up the track.
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