Return to Bogenhafen and road to the Giants' kingdom !

So following our last session in the Mines of Karak Ture, our warhammer RPG party has been hitting the road again after a well deserved rest.
The following events loosely follow some elements from the imperial campaign, the ennemy within and all, if those elements seems familiar, here's the reason, I have never played or read those scenarios though so spoiler alert !

During the recovery period, our 2 dwarf friends Ungrim and Thorbur had a little side quest which had them take one of the prisonners, Bolf, who had been freed in the events of Karak Ture. The young man was looking for a way to the city so he joined the party on the boat that would take them all back to Bogenhafen.

(Bolf is played by Noa, our GM's sone and is the 7th adventurer of our party and only the second human after Gregor, my own character)

Bolf and his companion dog Yoda

After 2 weeks sailing up where they all took the time to train, learn new languages and do their paperwork, our companions went back on the shore for a last couple of days by foot to reach the city.

During their side quest, the dwarves and Bolf had found a strange item that would magically show you the lyrics of a couple of songs when you pressed it, it seemed to have a charming effect on beasts and some monsters, Ungrim and Gregor couldn't help but sing their hearts out which made the name "REBECCA" appear magically in thin air ...

On the evening after a day's walking, a silhouette emerged from the woods in a flash asking for help in a panic !

The companions could see a carriage stopped in the middle of the path and they all heard a loud explosion like thunder...

Some humans and some weird creatures were fighting, with already quite a few human casualties

Some beastmen had apparently raided the convoy and its poor members

One of the beastmen seemed to be a magic user of great power and it summoned an infernal creature with crab like features but somehow still very attractive, our companions rushed to get rid of the menace though and rescue whatever survivors were left...

After defeating the beasts and demon, the companions searched the carriage and the passengers in hope to find their identity (honest) and they were stunned to find that one of the passengers was the spitting image of none other than Gregor (played by yours truly) !!!

Now the most intriguing part was that the corpse had a couple of papers, one confirming its identity and the other a will act from a sollicitor in Bogenhafen stating there was a fortune of 20000 gold crowns and a manor, complete with wine cellar, to be claimed for the rightful heir, a certain Kastor Lieberung !!!

On the evening of the second day, our companions finally reached Bogenhafen, it flet like it had been years since they hd last step foot, the northern gate still as imposing as ever...

The adventurers made their way in the familiar streets... 

Unaware a trap was closing on some of them !

Their first stop was to go see the Ture borthers to give them the letter from King Gotri and news from the family. Although they were disheartened to hear of the lte king's demise in the mines, his heroic death, fighting the hobgoblins and his Son taking up the mantle and responsability filled their hearts with pride...

Every adventurer had business of their own in the city so they all split, with Gregor going to the city's great library, making a detour via Myrmidia's shrine to pray his patron goddess. 

Moyra the elf had to go see the sollicitor in town to purchase the deceased doctor's house (see episode 1) and start her own business, the elves had some equipment to get and the dwarves were set on building a temple to Grugni so had several tasks to take care of. Meanwhile, Bolf, their new companion, had in mind to make some quick money and sell his services as a rat catcher...

Gregor took Bolf with him to the great library, the place showed the passion of the people running it, it was neat, full of rare tomes and valuable copies, Gregor knew instantly this would be a tremendous help in their quests !

After a quick word with Werner, the chief librarian, Gregor went to study several subjects amongst which the land of giants they were keen on visitig after Piotr had left them a trail to find his wife back, they also needed to look for clues about the mysterious crystal balls they had found in the dwarves' treasure. Gregor also wante dto know more about that person that looked frighteningly like him and whoever his family was (if he was to try and take his identity to score a stranger's heirloom)

The research was quite fruitful, Gregor (as one of the only 3 litterate members of the band) copied the information he needed and left, he would probably have to come back later for Werner to find more on the crystal balls but he knew enough to decide he'd check on the town sollicitor's cabinet to take an apointment and unfold that heirloom mistery...

Moyra the elf had her own meeting with the sollicitor to finally get her own cabinet !

Business in the city was going own like on any autumn day with the activity on the town market place and the docks

The guards were patrolling the ramparts

And that's precisely where Gregor had to go next, to the city guards baracks to register as a judicial champion, it was quite a change to go through thee doors on his own terms !

As he went thourgh the doors, Gregor was unaware a pair of eyes were set on him...

As he entered the barracks, Gregor was quickly lead to the chief guard who would grant him the title and papers.

The chief guard could clearly remember Gregor and all the rawkus he had been associated to but he was a good man at hearts and signed the paper and delivered Gregor a badge that would give him the required title to settle judiciary duels.
Gregor took the opportunity to go nail some posters on the billboards in town to find some work.

On his way out, the strange figure from above went up to him and started rubbing his ear and adressing him in strange terms and if they knew. Gregor was quite positive he had never met the man though and dismissed him to resume his day.

His day wasn't quiet for long though as a group of adventurers jumped on him  to get him back... to the city guard barracks !

The sergeant was rather displeased by seeing Gregor again in such a manner but the group who had taken Gregor handed him a reward poster...

The sergeant scratched his head and tossed the poster aside, it was not a reward from the authorities and therefore had nothing to do with them. The bounty hunters were not thrilled with this and were clearly looking for revenge. The sergeant warned Gregor to avoid any further mess in town this time for his own good, Gregor's attempts at claiming he didn't have anythig to do with it never found an ear...

Meanwhile, the dwarves were on an entirely different adventure, with the generous rewards from their dwarven brothers at the mine, they had set their mind on getting some good time in between more glorious projects so they landed at Sybille's brothel for some quality sweet time...

Player's note : I don't know if the characters or the players were the most thrilled by it

They all find their match and got their money's worth if their lasting smile was any measure...

Gregor went to Sybille's parlor right after them but for an entirely different matter. Sybille was looking for a judiciary champion to settle a dispute between her and the widow of a former client of hers whose "petite mort" had turned into a very real (if happy) death. The widow wanted to have Sybille's place closed and this was their last resort.
Gregor wasn't unhappy to have such a fine woman to help for his first mission as a judiciary champion, the reward was tempting and Sybille had implied she would personnaly see he was amply ... satisfied after that, provided he made it alive mind.

All our companions had business in town after that, Hardandil the wizard had ingredients for his spells to get, the party's doctor Moyra had herbs and paperwork, the dwarves had their project to build a shrine to Grugni and all sorts of activities...

The sollicitor's office must have been the place we've seen the most this time !

Meeting for meals to rest and cross informations, Gregor told his companions about the odd encounters he had made during the past 2 days, they would be keeping an eye on them if they saw them...

Bolf was keen on making a little money and offered his services as rat catcher to the city guards who assigned him the cleaning of the docks...

He managed to gain a little money, experience and credit from a good work.

That's when a huge clamour from the docks arose ! Our companions rushed to the river to see what was happening !

A sailor had found a dead body in the river and as the guards were taking it to the shore, Gregor could see he was the spitting image of the man who had been stalking him for days ! Now the most intriguing part was that the guards stated that from the state of the body, it must had been in the water for days !

Now that was mistery thickening at high speed !

Going back to the billboard on his way to the tavern, to check for any new mission, Gregor met a young lady who was mlooking for an intendant role, he knew Moyra was looking for some assistance for the times they would be out of town so he directed her to Moyra, secretly hoping the charming young woman would pass the interview !

Just as the intendant and the smile on his face were vanishing, Gregor was once again ambushed, only this time, people were not looking for the "or alive" part if that was about the bounty on his head !

One of the attackers straight up shot him in the head with a pistol and if it wasn't for his chain hood and helmet, he would be in front of Myrmidia to settle his place in afterlife...

Luckily for him, the assault was just behind Moyra's office and that alerted some of his friends fast enough to both take care of the assaulters and give him the first care. It was the third time the sergeant was seeing Gregor now though and although they found the same fake bounty again, his patience was growing thin.

What the guards didn't find though was the paper Harandil quickly took from the one who had shot Gregor, he was carrying a letter from a mysterious unindentifiable characters who was clearly targetting kastor Liebering, Gregor's doppleganger, there were ties to Altdorf but not much made sense amongst that.

Our companions took Gregor to Moyra's office for recovery.

After making sure he was safe, Moyra was expecting at the very least some sort of thank to both her for her care and her brother Tauron who had saved him by sniping the shooter from their office. Gregor's ungratefulness lead her to give him on last pill he thoughtlessly swallowed...

player's note : What Moyra gave to Gregor was an annoyonce pill, which basically makes a character as irritating as can be, a quick word from the GM let me know I had to be the most irritating until further notice with no explanation to my partners.

As everyone was going to get to bed, Gregor started arguing about rooms and who to sleep with (despite technically being in Moyra's house), he was such a pest about the evening's dinner and the plans for the coming days that several of his friends decided to go elsewhere to stop the agony.

And it might have been Myrmidia's blessing to all ! During the night, the window near Gregor exploded and a shadowy silhouette entered the smoking windown frame ! The prompt arrival of the heroes in the room next door though had the assassin's fleeing tough.
Gregor tried to follow him but fell from the window, screaming for help in the most annoying manner while Tauron chased the assassin to finally snipe him in the dark.

The assassin was carrying a poisonned blade that would have ended Gregor's life in a stab !

With morning though, the effects of Moyra's pill vanished and Gregor fel back to his only mildly irritative self, to the relief of his companions.

The very next day, it was Gregor's very first official duel. He would be facing Max Ernst, a man renowned for his cruelty and hated by the entire town. Gregor had been trying to find a weakness, gain an advantage of some sort to get the upperhand, interviweing people in all the pubs, brothels and places he might be but to no result, he would have to fiight fair and square....

Well with a little help from his friend Ungrim who was cloaked by the invisible spell from his magic dagger and who might save the outcome, shall the duel turn the worng way... And he also might have taken a force potion beforehand which is technically OK.

Everyone had gathers, the 2 women sponsoring the duel, their witnesses and the city guard representatives, along some spectators and supporters

The beginning of the battle was ferocious and Gregor could only ever dodge but after a while, he saw a pattern and started to strike, first disarming his opponent and then striking to wound, after a first hit to the chest, Gregor managed to hit his opponent's arm so hard it broke through both the arm and Max's rib cage, leaving the man fall on  the ground and winning him his first ever judiciary duel.
The win was clear, fair, uncontestable and that made Gregor very proud ! 
They celebrated that at the crossed spears tavern and Gregor went to pick his ...personnal... reward from Sybille...

After all the event sin Bogenhafen, it was time for our companions to hit the road again though. taking the magic chestnut their friend Piotr the giant had given them, they finally thougt of a way to have it work (they had to get it into water). So they waited till early in the morning, found a hidden spot and tossed the chestnut in a puddle big enough to contain all of them.

As soon as the chestnut hit the water, the water turned from a mirror like surface to a whirlpool in which they all jumped !

After a fall that seemed both a second and an eternity, they all landed (some well and other not as well) in a forest they had never seen and they could immediately sense the weather was much colder !

After the (relative for some) quietness of their stay in Bogenhafen, adventure was catching up with them and they soon discovered a body in the woods, the man had seemingly been attacked with claws and his chest was slashed.

Entering the woods, Bolf and Tauron with their dogs tied to sense a presence but all they could sense was a silhouette that escaped them in a flash, rapidly losing the trail ...

Crossing the forest, they finally reached a higher spot from which to scout the area and they saw a path...

The path lead them to a frightened villager who immediately told them they shouldn't be out at night around these parts and he lead them to his village to fall back to safety as soon as possible.

The village was rather small, only protected by a very small fence, the people were obviously not from around Bogenhafen...

Our adventurers were lead to the town's elder who was running what had to be run around these parts. He warned them about the recurring wolf attacks that had been plaguing them for the past few months.

The villagers were simple people and from the looks of them, they hadn't been fed well for quite a while though, losing people to the wolf attacks and not being able to come out of the village had taken a huge toll on those people, but they still offered full hospitality to our friends. 
The villager who had taken them was Adolf Jaeger, he was bringing some game he had hunted and all the villagers were relieved to see him, he didn't live in the village though and had a small house further in the woods. The man had lost his wife to the wolves a few years earlier and lived alone now.

Our companion couldn't help but try and help the villagers so they offered their service to get rid of the wolves once and for all ! 
Their first idea was to go find the help of Adolf so they reached out to him and tried to ambush the wolves, hiding in fresh wolf pelts to cover their scent but they never found the pack. 
Some of teh campanions started to have doubts about Adolf though, suspecting he might have been a werewolf or something so they tried to take him out at night to make him look at the moon, tried to sense any magic in him or even pressed silver coins on his bare skin but nothing came out of this, the wolves' attacks were too well coordinated to have been randome and there was a clear acceleration in attacks lately so there had to be an exterior source... or maybe an interior one, the party investigated the townsfolk as well, even hiding in the elder's hut !

It seemed like the werewolf trail was a dead end, the onlything close to wolf evidence in the houses were wolf symbols of Ulric, the people's patron god (which further indicated our heroes were quite far in the North).
So their last call was to get ready and wait in the village for an attack, after repelling attacks for a couple of nights, one of the attacks was finally lead by a much bigger wolf and as the wolves were fleeing again, our heroes decided to chase after them !
Tauron had gone to Adolf's house to make sure has really wasn't part of this but he never found him...

What is friends found thoug was a wolf like creature in the wood's clearing...

And it wasn't alone ! The wolf like creature shouted "HAND IT BACK TO ME NOW THIEVES ! I KNOW YOU HAVE IT "

There was no war yo settle this with words though at this point so it ended up in a mess fight with the wolves and the were creture which had turned into an even bigger wolf...

After getting rid of the wolves and monster, the latter turned back into Adolf, the party was mesmerised, part surprised and part of saddened too, on the way back to the village, one little girl handed them a mask she claimed to have taken from Adolf, the mask was part man part wolf, and just as the villagers were thanking them, the ground under them vanished into another whirlpool like the one which had taken them here !

They were now facing the entrance of a cave !

Entering the cave, they could see it contained a sleeping giant and a cell !

And that cell was holding none other than their friends Piotr the Giant and Thorfin the slayer !

Ungrim unsheathed his blade and became invisible to go try and get the keys from the sleeping giant, his snoring shaking the whole cavern !

That would have worked if it wasn't for one of the companions stepping on a twig, which awakened the jailor !

In the distance, the heroes who had stayed outside the cavern to guard (totally not because they were afraid to get in) sensed some activity from the woods and suddenly thigs got real when two gigatic figures emerged from the trees !

Now remembering the effect of their magic item on some creatures, some of other heroes started doing what felt like the wisest sane thing to do when faced with 3 hostile giants : sing.

The magic item responded by showing the lyrics to a new song and here they were, shouting like their lives depended on it (and they did) while fleeing, the giants apparently phased by the music, uncontrollably moving to the rythm and hindered by its power !

When the hostile giants were closing in, things were started to get a little desperate but everyone was out now !

That's the moment when Piotr took another magic Chestnut from his pocket and tossed it in front of them, not questionning the course of actions here, everyone jumped into the whirlpoo that had just opened, thinking anything might be better than 3 hostile giants !

Our companions starting falling for an eternity in to the void and that's when the game stopped for this time, leaving us players in the most thrilling cliffhanger !!!

Those were exciting days once again, this week end's session followed the previous ones but didn't look like them, everytime is a different experience which is extremely motivating, no patterns or monotony, you can't get away from every situation with a sword and this time we had the opportunity to develop our characters and open a few gates for several new quests, that can lead a player to feel a bit lost as wether what to do or not but it's also a way to feel the real freedom Roleplaying is about, you're not just a in a gaming corridor and you might never know what was behind some doors you never opened. It as also really nice to see a new player bloom; I find new players to be refreshing as they tend to avoid traditional patterns and more meta gaming and Bolf really grew through this weekend, kudos to him, the session has also reinforced the bonds between party members and made them feel more real and grounded.

And as you might have realised, having some integrated karaoke parts made it even more fun (since a couple of us are singing all the tie anyway !)

Once again, we were extremely lucky to have such a dedicated Game Master, the task of having 7 players is no small feat and everything was prepared and foolproof as ever, the best conditions for players really, fully immersive boards, miniatures and little objects all make a huge difference for immersion.
I don't have to tell you we are absolutely eager to know what's next, even if it's most likely more giants and perils !