Road to Lustria - The Bogenhafen Saga

So I had the chance to resume our ongoing warhammer fantasy roleplay campaign a couple of weeks ago. I had been waiting eagerly for this since my character, Gregor Mc Connor, a former pit fighter turned judiciary champion was now quite experienced and there were a few matters still on hold

If you want to catch up with previous episodes, you can do so in the following links, it is quite a long read now but it's proven to be a very helpful guide to us players (and even our GM) before new games.

The first episode is HERE

Second episode is HERE

Third episode is HERE

So after falling in a vortex for a time he coudn't guess, Gregor suddenly appeared with Harandil in a dark place with a strong scent of salt. The ground was moving and it didn't take our companions long to figure they were in a ship's hold.

Two figures emerged from the shadow into the light from the deck's hatch and Both Harandil and Gregor were stunned to see 2 beautiful women, almost naked and in shackles. The women had a strong accent and they asked for some help as soon as possible to escape the ship before it would leave the coast.

Gregor asked what coast this would be and it turns out they were on the coast of Lustria heading to the old world ! 

The women, Shania and tania were in a hurry though and they clearly hinted the major issue wasn't even leaving the boat in time but to attend to urgent matters on the ground !

Harandil and Gregor hid behind some boxes in the shadow and Shania and Tania called for their captors who quickly came to check on their merchandise (there were several other captives).

It didn't take long for the group to get rid of the pirates and it turns out the women didn't need that much help for they were skilled warriors themselves.

Both the Amazons (as they called themselves) quickly took their gear back and the group left the ship and the captors in shackles to head for the coast on a raft.

Back on the shore, Gregor couldn't help but notice something shiny and intriguing in the sand as the 2 amazons were running towards the jungle, it turns out it was a trap from a giant clam which would have bit his whole arm if it wasn't for his veteran reflexes.

As they were running to follow the amazons, Harandil and Gregor encountered their companion Bolf emerging from a cave, they told him to quickly follow them and although he was hesitant at first, he finally decided to follow them. They tried to catch up with everything that had happened while running and Bolf talked a lot of non sense about an invisible ship, a monster and a huge treasure !

The amazons were now terrified about the impending disaster about to happen and the light was turning weird in the sky, as they were running in the jungle, they stopped in front of a giant creature smashing its own chest in an impressive act to scare them (which worked). The group decided to move around the hill...

leaving the giant unknown creature behind them, they ran round the hill...

But they only found another of the giant creatures, now accompanied ! Bolf's dog Yoda couldn't help but bark and try to impress the creatures who started charging !

At that moment, something weirder than anyting they had ever seen happened, the sky turned almost black and the sun was like hidden.

When the light came back, the cratures had disappeared but the amazons were now more frightened than ever and they kept talking about the impending doom they were about to face !

The group started running in the jungle...

That's when they finally met a new group of amazons who nearly shot our heroes on sight before Shania and Tania held them off

Shania explained the matter to our companions, her mother, the grand priestess had been captured by a tribe of Pygmies and she was the one who could stop the disaster about to happen. The pymies were not a malevolent tribe per se but they oftened captured slaves because of their low birth rate.
Our heroes came up with a plan, they would tie the amazons with loose knots and enter the pygmy village as if they were to sell them and once inside, they'd fight their way to liberate everyone held captive. The amazons agreed to that plan and they all approached the village which was surrounded by grim totems and piles of bones...

Inside the village, they found their 2 dwarf friends Ungrim and Thorbur along with Moyra the elf, all captives. They also recognised their giant friend Piotr and a female giantess they assumed was Rebecca.

Gregor made a discrete sign to his companions to stay quiet as if they didn't know each other for now, THEY HAD A PLAN.

The leader of the Balouba tribe Bango got the crew to enter his village under the guard of his fiercest warriors.

Tanya recognised her mother, Pamela the high priestess, in the distance and was relieved. The High priestess told everyone things were going to be OK and they didn't have to pretend to have captured the amazons or anything and things could be settled if they would only listen to someone of importance.

A massive silhouette emerged from a hut, it was like a giant Toad unlike anything they'd ever seen and the toad was carried on a palanquin carried by strange looking humans.

Rebecca the giant, Piotr's lover he was looking for in their previous encounters, told them they had to listen to the mage and fulfill his quest, Piotr (who was now speaking without any accent) confirmed and urged them to complete the task for they were all in grave danger !

The giant Toad raised an arm in the air but it's the small frog behind it which talked in its place !

"I, the great Panatloc challenge you to retrieve the sacred brecelet from the Balouba tribes and I will let you all return where you belong safely, I HAVE SPOKEN !"

The Balouba chief, Banga, came to our heroes and told them they had the chane to win the bracelet by defeating his little brother banga.
There wasn't much more to it, no magical weapon allowed just a fair fight against Bango's little brother...

As a champion and faithful servant of Myrmidia, Gregor went on and couldn't retain a little "damnit" when Banga, Bango's "little" brother came in...

Gregor fought valliantly, taking his opponent down bit by bit, the giant was close to falling when a powerful blow threw Gregor against the wall only to bounce back, barely alive into the ring, at that moment, Gregor uttered a prayer to Myrmidia who decided keep her champion alive for yet a bit longer (player note : and I just lost a fate point).

The rest of the party suffered the same fate (or loss thereof), one by one, until Bolf, the humble rat catcher, left with just a low quality bow managed to take the final forces of Banga who fell down and let the others pick his bracelet !

While Moira was healing everyone up, the priestess offered the secret bracelet to Panatloc the great who recovered an item for it, Panatloc had one last demand though and he asked (well his servant did in his place) for another 2 participants to go, Harandil and Ungrim were teleported and when they came back, they gave Panatloc the item he was looking for.
Getting the final items he seeked, Panatloc got surrounded by a sort of force field, this time he was the one talking directly and he ungratefully thanked them and disappeared in a flash leaving everyone stunned and in shock !

Rebecca and Piotr told everyone to flee as the ground was starting to shake and they were apparently looking for their ship, Bolf asked them if the thing he had seen in the cave earlier was their ship and the description seemed to match so they had to hurry before the volcano would burry them all under burning ash and lava !

Oiur adventurers, along Piotr and Rebecca and the amazons ran to the cave by the shore but found the door locked.

Bolf remembered the monster he saw in the cave had hit the stone 4 times and said something like "Farewell brothers of the coast, you will be remembered" so he did the same thing and the door... stood still and nothing happened !

Everyone was now panicking and one of the amazons saw 3 red dots of light on her arm just before getting annihilated by a shot coming from the jungle !

Bolf was trying to remember the passphrase 
"FAREWELL BROTHERS OF THE SEA, WE WILL NOT FORGET YOU !"

Still nothing...

A hulking silhouette appeared out of thin air in the jungle !

Ungrim was the closest and charged right away, quickly followed by Gregor !

Meanwhile the ground was shaking more than ever and Harandil finally remembered the passphrase Bolf had told them about :

"Brothers of the sea, this is just a farewell"

And the entrance to the cave finally opened letting the party access the weird ship and the treasure in the cave !

Time was of the esseence now though and the cave's ceiling was starting to collapse, however there was an intruder in the ship's cargo bay, a weird egg shaped sort of mushroom ? Rebecca got terrified and told the crew to be careful so Thorbur did the best thing dwarves do and solved the problem with a hammer strike. A weird spider like creature escaped the now smasehd egg and fled to the back of the cave.
Gregor and bolf had just had the time to take some of the treasure with them and the whole party left aboard the ship which took off and flew far from the now very woken volcano !

[insert voice sound effects here]

Piotr and Rebecca left our companions in a forest near Bogenhafen. During the very brief journey, despite the formidable distance, the giant couple explained how they were actually not from this planet (which must have been so incredible our heroes didn't even stop to consider that fact) and they had been trapped on this one until they could fix their ship. They expressed how truly grateful they were for everything that had happened and they would never forget them !

With a heavy heart and puzzled mind, our companions returned to the familiar and now reassuring sight of Bogenhafen, heading for their hideout in Moira's office.

The city was rather calm but how long would that last ? With Moira returning to the office, Gregor went to the bulletin board to see if there were new jobs or requests of interest and found plenty of intersting leads.

When he came back to the house, his companions were all madly agitated, Moira had found the door to her office broken and a dead body lying on the ground !

After a quick detout via the Ture brothers to get his armour and Thorbur's fixed, Gregor along Harandil and Bolf went to the Guardsmen barracks to report the crime and avoid any trouble.

With all their previous encounters and knwing Gregor was now a judiciary champion, the guards knew our heores well and were actually waiting for them !

Gregor reported the body found at Moira's ofice and theuards quickly shut him p an dtold him they already knew about it and had the culprit !

Wondering why they'd left the body at their office, Gregor asked the guards what they knew.

It seemed like a group of robbers had tried to enter the office and had been caught, one of them had been arrested while the others had managed to escape ...

Gregor asked to meet with the criminal and he was brought to the cells.

The intruder was a young woman named Ophelia, she didn't hold back when asked about the crime. She had been hired along another man named Batisto Varisi to break into Moyra's office and the payment in return was to take anything she'd want. She didn't know much about the rest. 

Gregor decided to pay for her release but he kept all her gear and kept her on a tight figurative leash.

As ever, Gregor tok the little free time he had to go pray Myrmidia and pay her respect, she had saved him from a dire situations when he faced the giant and he was truly greatful she ws still looking over him.

Back to the city centre, Gregor met his companions. His companions informed him that after visiting Johan Teugen and the Ture brothers, they should look for an old woman named Magotte as a lead on the events s they went questionning people on the city market

The woman was finally found doing her shoping and after a pricey negociation, she revealed the location of her inn where they might find clues but she clearly didn't want to get involved any further

They now knew they had find the Old Maggotte's inn further up the Bogen river so they quickly went to the port to hire a place on the first boat available.

On arrival, the inn was entirely scorched in ruins, they knew they were at the right place though and upon inspection, they found a chimney still holding in place and a secret entrance leading to a dark corridor.

The entrance was obviously trapped but the party was now experienced enough not to fall into obvious traps.

They quickly noticed that the whole place had seen a lot of action as the furniture around as all in mess...

They soon found dead bodies too. A quick inspection seemed to affiliate them to the Schwarzenegger clan...

Our heroes were very coutious in their inspection of the place, never knowing if they'd find any body alive...

After the reception room they started hearing some faints noises though so they tried to move on as discretly s possible.

That's when after opening a door, Gregor felt a strong hit to the chest fortunately stopped by his armour, there was someone left alive !

It turns out it was a member of the Scharzenegger clan who had locked himself in with a crossbow, waiting for some help after the Margarita clan had invaded their area. Three clans had been sharing the undergrounds so far with an agreement of mutual neutrality but the truce has been broken  without a warning. 
The last Schwarzenegger didn't last long though and he just managed to warn them some margarita clansmen were waiting in the next room.

When they entered the room, they indeed encountered 2 guards who asked "are you the new recruits ?" to which theparty quickly (yet unconvincingly ) answered "YES"...
"ok, hurry, up, it's up the stairs"

The Margarita clan was clearly packing everything for a move and in a hurry to do so, they were quickly put to hep to carry some of the luggaage, Ophelia recognised one of the members as Batisto Varisi though and informed Gregor with a discrete nod in his direction, the workers were too numerous and noone had any idea how many more were further down the undergrounds so the band kept a low profile for now...

The party split in 2 directions, one following the margarits (or more like being carried with the flow), the other one, inclusing Gregor ent for the more deserted path. 

Carrying packages around , pretending they were helping, the band got to visit most of the place although not much was of any use to them

When theyr reached a dead end, they started investigatuing and eventually found a secret stash and a hidden passage further from where the Margaritas were all gathering so they took this path...

The tunnel were dimly lit and not easy to navigate through but there was definitely some activity nearby so they advanced carefully...

That's when they found a body and the noises began to get louder and nearer !

A tide of rats attacked and weird creatures, like beastmen but with rat heads appeared ! They were easy enough to chase and it felt like they were running away from something...

At the end of the tunnel, the band could now see a huge cave with rails and carts like the place was a former mine. The other half of the crew was actually at the other end of the cave with some people behind a barricade (they were members of the Huydermans, the 3rd clan in the undergrounds)

Some terrifying chants were heard and a disgusting sound and smell entered the mine along with a weird fog...

A giant slug, with its head covered in tentacles and its whole body oozing pus and worse, was now slowly creeping towards them followed by cultists chanting in a weird way...

At this point, things were clear enough, even without knowing who was who, they knew those weird creatures couldn't be on the right side so the party attacked the giant slug and the familiars

And they were right to do so since a second spawn ws coming in the trace of the first, both leaving gross mucus on the floor our heroes avoided at all cost, nt knowing if it wasn't infected with some horrible disease.

After defeating the cultists and the disgusting spawns, our heroes ran up the corridor from where they were coming and arrived on an occult ritual at the center of which they recognised Moira's assistant, chained to a pillar and about to be sacrificed !

Charging in to interrupt the ritual, the cultists were forming a wall of body between the heores and the hostage and the chants reached a climax during which the poor girl started having spasms...

Some disturbing shapes were starting to emerge from the victim's belly and Gregor took it upon himself to stab the poor girl (who was pretty much dead already) followed by Thorbur who put an end to her agony with a mighty blow from his magic hammer.

The rest of the cultists were trying to flee but they were quickly caught by our heroes before they could get far...

The underground river  lead to a source of light ...

...which eventualy emerged to the Bogen itself where our comanions could finally get a ship back to Bogenhefen.

Their hearts were heavy, the last events hadn't quite turned how they wanted, a chaotic chalice had been stolen from them, their assistant had been killed without them being able to pevent it and the man who was associated with the events had fled without them being able to confront him.

None of them knew what the future held for them and very dark clouds were now forming over their destiny...