Warhammer Fantasy Campaign: [Session Reports] Killing Agravaine

* blog note: I'm going to stop pretending I'm updating this blog at any set frequency, you will continue to see little bursts of activity and then nothing for three months.

The Crew

Onfroy - fencer and louche extraordinaire, with a fetish for female urine

Willem of Nye - death wizard, searcher of artifacts, seeking of Enochian and Elohim mysteries

Regis de Pubiens aka Don Gonada - spy and huckster, the voice of reason

Okra, a female ogre smith, good at smashing, always hungry

Twiggett Plumbottom, halfling thief

So after taking captive the Lord of the random castle they raided on the river Morceux (prounounced More-So cuz its wfrp 'tongue and cheek' humor), the PCs (really Onfroy and Regis) negotiated the exchange of the Lord's treasury and safe passage away as ransom. The knights were honorable and allowed the merry band on their way.

The party then made it to the outskirts of the dukedom's capital, Castle Aquitaine itself. The boat captain bid them adieu and the party approached the castle town.

Aquitaine

They first took service with one of Agravaine's banner lords, but quickly acted like idiots and tried to assault the main castle to gain entry rather than negotiating their way inside. They fled into the town proper, before hiding successfully in an alley. There two robed 'men' invited them to negotiate with the ratmen, as they turned out to be.

The skaven sorcerer promised to help them gain entry into Agravaine's inner keep if they would obtain his Nehekharan scrolls and any other magical items from the strange architect-engineer in Agravaine's employ. The group readily agreed.

The group was snuck through skaven tunnels to a point said to be beneath the keep. The skaven offered to blow open a hole, which again the group agreed to. The hole in the cellars of the keep brought several men-at-arms to investigate.

After the group mercilessly ambushed the initial guards, Onfroy made two kiss each other to prove their willingness to submit. He then killed them, laughing. The adventurers soon fought their way out of the cellars and into the keep's entryway, which had the large courtyard of the castle on the other side. There they were met with more skilled knights coming down from the keep. Between an ogre and the wizard Willem of nye, however, the knight guards stood little chance. 

Agravaine

But then Agravaine and his 'architect' appeared, the latter coming down the stairs of the keep and the former from the courtyard area. The architect, a strange necromancer in white tunic with a burnished wood rod, engaged in a spell duel with Willem of Nye. Around that same time, a mighty statue 18' tall pounded towards the keep, animated by some strange magics. The colossus stood ready to hammer anyone who emerged from the door, but did not attack the structure itself.  

Hidden and free from the melee in the keep entryway,  Twigget the halfling soon made short work of the necromancer with two well-placed sling bullets. The architect fell, and then was doused with a flask of lamp oil thrown by Regis de Pubiens. Meanwhile, Onfroy sought to slay Agravaine himself, but was driven back from the courtyard beyond the keep's door by a rain of arrows. Onfroy cracked the demonic sword that he had fished out of the river in Giseroux months before summoning a red, smoking-sword wielding demon who lurched forward to attack Agravaine.

The Colossus Statue

Then the adventurers inside fought the last remaining knights in the keep, avoiding the archers and colossus in the courtyard. Twigget and Regis both fired missiles at Agravaine, who attempted to push his way inside the keep before being stopped by the demon. Likewise, Onfroy threw his last petard with a deafening roar that filled the courtyard was smoke. The demon himself was quickly slain by Agravaine's archers, but not before Agravaine himself was brought low with several well-placed hits from the group. The colossus ceased his menacing movements. Twiggett quickly then dashed out, ripped off the amulet Agravaine wore, which the skaven sorcerer and Willem believed sustained his life unnaturally, and dashed back inside. Regis threw his last flask of burning oil on Agravaine's body, hoping that would ensure his demise. They then slammed shut the keep door, barred it, and went in to find anything of value from the necromancer's room, wherever that may be.

While his companions explored the keep, Willem of Nye brought comets and lightning from the heavens, disrupting and burning the knights and men-at-arms assembled in the castle courtyard trying to get back into the keep. Twiggett explored much of the keep, while Regis attempted futily to get past magically barred doors leading to the necromancer's workshop near his rooms on the fourth floor.

After killing a few scattered guards, the group finally accessed the necromancer's chambers, stole a stack of rolled-up scrolls and made their way back down to the cellar area. They then betrayed the ratmen by teleporting out the backside of the keep.

The adventurers then found themselves in a desperate struggle to escape the castle's outer walls. Archers laid low Willem several times and knights charged in, badly wounding by Okra and Regis. Finally, pushed up against the gatehouse wall, a last healing draught was poured down Willem's throat and he critically succeeded to teleport them away. The group ran for the the river, quickly throwing Twigget's rope down to rappel to the river.

Riverside, the ratmen streamed out of a hole in the keep's hillface as the adventurers swam for their lives across the river, tossing aside their heavier armor. They made it after some dicey swimming checks, and then smashed and killed the ratman sorcerer, the rat-ogre beast he rode, and a group of 30 or so skaven. Okra did most of the work with sweeping blows from her hammer, followed by several blasts from Willem's lightning-arcing fingers. 

At this point, everyone was very low on health, tired, and wounded (except Onfroy whose player sat out a session). They figured they were now in the Forest of Chalons, the legendary forest where the First King Gilles met the Lady of the Lake and received her blessing on the Isle de Lys. Onfroy proved a surprisingly good navigator as they walked through the forest at night, keeping the river as a landmark on their left. They then attempted to camp during the day, making a smokey fire with green wood.

Here, they were ambushed again after noontide. A band of mercenaries, Tilean, Estalian, and Imperial, approached the camp, but were spotted before ambushing everyone. In the chaotic scrum that followed, Willem (again) and Okra were laid low before the mercenaries themselves were overcome. Apparently, the new lord back in Aquitaine had hired them to kill Agravaine's killers. Alas for them, the group once again pulled it out by the skin of their teeth.

Finally, the battered group made its way to a small 'frontier' settlement of woodsmen and hunters, ruled by Lady Helvois and her husband. Regis sweet talked the residents into letting them inside, saying they were foes of Agravaine. Once inside, they found lodgings and favor with the lady lord, whose husband fought with Duke Alberic against Agravaine. That is where the adventures ended, as the adventurers lick their wounds, recuperate, and spend some well-earned money and experience.

Haul

50 GC from the keep of Duke Agravaine.

300 GC from the ransom of Lord Bartheleme, buried somewhere outside Aquitaine

The ducal crown of Aquitaine

Nehekharan amulet

2 wheellock pistols

1 Luccini long rifle wheelock

3 petards (bombs)

2 hand crossbows

1 crossbow

1 skaven staff (Staff of the Great Horned One)

1 jar of flies

1 light warhorse (a charger)

2 riding horses