WFRP4 - Campaign Session Reports Updates - From Bordeleaux to Dragonsbridge

Lord Agravaine, the player's nemesis

Oh boy, it has been awhile since I updated the WFRP4 session recaps. I knew it had been awhile, but not as long as it has. So there’s no way I’m going to go into the detail I did before for this post. Instead, I’ll try a bullet point list of the highlights and then maybe add back in some detail once we’re all caught up.

Map of Bordeleaux

Dramatis Personae

Boneshard, Norscan Marauder Champion (tier 3 career)

Regis de Pubiens (nomme de guerre – Don Gonada de Ciudad de … I don’t remember, some estalian identity)

Onfroy Proudhon le ‘Wretch’ – a new character who joined later.

Events

• As mentioned, with the aid of a chosen band of knights from Duke Alberich of Bordeleaux and four High Elf archers from the Ambassador’s guard, Boneshard and Regis plunged into the city sewers to find the Idol of Flies and stop the skaven plans.
• After many ambushes along the way, the adventurers made it to a skaven undercity with a slavemaster’s platform in the center of a market-looking square. From the derelict state of the affairs, the town looked semi-abandoned but then the group heard a crowd from a distance. Carved into some old sewers (built by High Elves in Bordeleaux’s far past?) was a large auditorium. The characters murdered some ratmen guards and snuck closer – there was a skaven Grey Seer before the Idol, his thousands of ratmen minions chanting and squeeking. The characters unleashed mayhem, ambushing the Seer with burning oil flasks and attaining several critical hits. Regis broke his leg jumping from the rafters to grab the idol, successfully chucked to Boneshard. Regis is captured while the knights hold off the rodent throng in the sewer and Boneshard runs out carrying the Idol. They make their way to the nearest sewer manhole, several passages and rooms past, and with some lucky rolls, Boneshard escapes.

• Boneshard makes his way through the streets as whatever skaven have amassed beneath the city boil out, frantically seeking the Idol. The Duke's men, warned by the characters, fight back, fires spreading throughout the city.
• Regis is captured by the skaven master Grey Seer, now burned. (He spent a permanent Fate point to survive.)
• After resting a few hours, Boneshard finds the Elven ambassador Menilthir who assists in finding Regis and teleporting Boneshard and himself below the streets. Boneshard kills the ratmen guards (and a ratogre), saving Regis
• The group advises destroying the Idol. In a ritual, Menilthir and priestesses assist in melting it down while fighting continues.
• Bordeleaux is saved, for now, though the rats have left behind disease and destruction. Not on the scale they could have unleashed with the Idol.
• After doctors' care, Boneshard and Regis now seek to save the cursed duke having destroyed the Idol of Flies and so travel to Castle Aquitaine.
• In the wilds on the journey, Boneshard receives a dream vision of a herdstone - with a large and powerful sword leaning against it. 

• Boneshard finds the beastherd, to Regis's dismay. He defeats the minotaur champion of the beastherd and the beasts bow to him. This lets him claim the sword, which now speaks to Boneshard in his mind. Regis goes along with the situation, but works with Boneshard to find a place for the beastherd to be wiped out in their raiding and rapine of the local Bretonnian towns. After gaining much corruption, the beastherd is drawn into a village which Regis prepared to defend itself a few hours before, and Boneshard cuts down the beastman shaman. Boneshard keeps the Sword of Souls.
• [DM note: Boneshard and Regis both gained much corruption in this episode. Boneshard's earlier acquisition of an enchanted bone necklace that summoned worms provided the pathway for the chaos sword to enter his mind and tempt him.]

• The duo emerges from the woods and soon finds Castle Aquitaine, but besieged by Lord Agravaine's host. They manage to signal a knight riding a pegasus and make it into the castle to tell Duke Armand's council their story of the Idol and that its destruction should free the Duke from the curse. The Damsel of the Lady, Dame Helvis believes the adventurers and lifts the magical slumber from the Duke. He is indeed no longer cursed. A new plan emerges: the adventurers will take their pages from the sorcerer's grimoire, captured in Castle Greemley many moons before, and letters from Agravaine to him and the summoning a pestilent demons to the King of Bretonnia, to formally accuse Lord Agravaine of sorcery. The Duke Armand, honor bound to defend his seat and his loyal men, will stay to fight off Lord Agravaine.

Castle Aquitaine

• [DM note: I made extensive siege rules if the adventurers had stayed, but they decided to come up with this plan of traveling to the King and I said to myself, that works.]
• With Sir Jaspert, the pegasus rider, Boneshard and Regis travel by flying horseback to the north. Then suddenly they are attacked in the sky over the Forest of Chalons near the western mountains of the Massif Orcal by a griffon, who slays their pegasus and they crash into the forest.

actually a lammergeier getting territorial with a vulture, but too cool not to share

• after crashing in the Forest, they encounter a traveling ne'er do well named Onfroy Proudhon le Wretch, wearing a wig on a horse. He was searching for work before getting lost in the forest after a drunken spree with a bard named Jarlyle. 
• The now three encounter a giant stag with many antler points, which speaks in their minds as the "King of the Wood." He will grant safe passage to the hungry travelers for removing an encampment of lumberers from the woods.
• Led to the camp of lumberjacks, Onfroy immediately accosts them at their palisade gate. They shoot arrows, yelling that they are free men not serfs of Onfroy. Armed with his Soul Stealer, Boneshard and Onfroy make short work of the 15 or so woodsmen who resist with but axes and gambesons. They take a few prisoners as slaves, and are allowed to leave the forest by the King of the Wood. They pass a troll crossing, slaying one of the river trolls.
• [DM Note: I did not expect their aggressive posture to the woodsmen to go so smoothly for them, but if you don't roll a critical, your PC got the Frightening trait, and they have some good rolls, they can carry out quite impressive feats. They also made short work of the trolls, which I forgot to use the surprise for.]
• The lord of the nearby manor allows the adventurers to stay as guests, as they reveal they are on an errand for the king with a known knight Sir Jaspert. They recover from the encounters in the woods and prepare to head north. They consider buying horses but do not have enough coin for Boneshard to have a horse.

Boneshard had gotten pretty ridiculous at this point

• They come to a monastery, really a nunnery, a few days travel to the north as they head for Gisoreux. Outside it's wall, a knight awaits with a lady nun. He challenges Boneshard to single combat, as she has had a vision of an evil and corrupted Norscan who should be slain. Boneshard agrees, and is badly wounded in the charge. Onfroy decides to attack the knight, seeing things going badly. Jaspert, horrified, steps in on the side of the Lady. Boneshard slays the knight, but Onfroy is blinded by the nun's prayer. They reach an agreement not to kill the nun to be left on their way. Jaspert refuses to travel with these men any longer, and takes the nun back to the monastery shrine.

• The party soon makes it to Gisoreux, bribing their way past the quarantine order on all southern travelers. While at an inn, they discover a man spying on them, having been paid good coin to report tales of a traveling Norscan and his companions, including an Estalian. They slay the man in an alley, then confront the innkeep if he has any knowledge. Onfroy, drunk, decides to stab the innkeep for the coin he demanded for his information not being good enough for Onfroy. All hell breaks lose, Onfroy tossing an illegal petard onto the doorframe soon after the local guards arrive. The Duke of Gisoreux's men-at-arms arrive soon thereafter. After much butchery and the use of flaming oil, the adventurers manage to escape. But they were spotted by the knight commanding the city men-at-arms.

• They steal a boat and collapse, exhausted in the slums outside the docks. Here they are taken in by the stevedores guild. Sometime around then Boneshard has used the chaos sword enough to develop a mutation, scaly skins granting 1 armor point. He was also having dreams of travelin to the Chaos wastes and becoming a mighty champion by slaying a chaos troll. The scales marked him as chaos-touched. 
• With her stevedores and spies in the slums of the docks, the Guildmistress Adele finds them, smiling to find Boneshard is chaos-touched. She offers them hospitality in her hall and revealed her interest in certain grimoire that spoke of opening a portal to the Realms of Chaos by orgiastic ritual. Sure enough at the full Morrslieb moon she brought Boneshard down to her secret temple to conduct a ritual with her and her cultists. During the orgy, Boneshard mutates further, growing spikes from his scales.

Adele at the ritual

Boneshard's spikes, approximately

• Boneshard dons a large helmet and black cloak to hide himself in public. The companions then decide to follow up on some leads, but end be drawn to near the Hall of Justice in the main Gisoreux square. Realizing they've been tricked, they knock out the investiagotr, but everything goes sideways for the adventurers. A general "hue and cry" is raised, and all within the city are mandated to grab weapons and seize the companions. Men-at-arms are assembling in the square. While distracted, somehow Regis steals Boneshard's blade as the adventurers scatter to the four winds running away.
• Separated, Onfroy and Regis make their way to the Stevedores Hall. Regis decides to set it afire to burn out the heretics, while Onfroy gets involved in a duel with a Hall's guard. Onfroy slays the guard, and before being found by a knight leading a continegent of men, they hide in the back alleys and escape.
• Meanwhile, Boneshard has been trapped on a main street by a large force of men-of-arms and knights. He throws down a burning oil flask as he is hit by several arrows. Three knights charge him, and he takes a lance wound as well. Bleeding, Boneshard cuts down a knight and intimidates the others. Then a mighty knight on a black destrier, his silvered armor fine and filigreed, leaps over the flames. Boneshard challenges him to one on one combat, which the knight accepts and combat is joined. Before his lance reaches Boneshard, however, Boneshard calls upon the dark powers to smite his foes, and knight's helmet crumples and he falls from the horse. Boneshard gathers the body, dragging him from the city as the gate's guards are too frightened to stop him.
• [DM note: through a long discussion with player badgering, I let Boneshard's player spend a permanent Fate point to kill the knight with a bunch of corruption points rather than merely save his own life - he would have died had he taken much more and was already burning Resolve to stop his bleeding critical.]

An impressionist rendering of Boneshard v. the knight

• That night, the companions tried to escape through the villages and hamlets ringing Gisoreux. They heard the howls and yelps of hounds and hoofbeats as the city gathered some force to find them. The companions successfully hid but abandoned the captured knight's body. They made refuge outside a village and found a deer for meat, but were soon found by some local knights, who they killed and stole their horses. Having been found, they decided to resume their quest to find the King in Couronne and resumed travels north.
• After getting lost in the ravines and valleys of the River Oise in rainstorms, the companions find the royal road. Exhausted, beset by a pack of wolves, they make their way to the village outside the Castle Dragonsbridge, which bridges the Oise in the mountains of the Pale Sisters. Winter had fallen and so the snows had come to the mountains.

Dragonsbridge

• In a tavern in the village beneath the mountain and castle, the characters take a room for the night and stable their stolen horses. With a knock at their door, a stranger introduces himself as Ferregus. He offers the characters a deal, but also a warning: the Lord of Dragonsbridge has been tipped off and is sending men. The characters escape and make their way to Ferregus's mountainside cave. There he offers them a bargain: he needs a key from Dragonsbridge to free a slumbering dragon beneath the mountain, and in exchange will aid the adventurers in any of their goals, as he will be a powerful Dragon Master.

what slumbers beneath the mountain?

[WFRP] More Spells! Lore of Heavens

My project to expand the spells in WFRP 4th edition to accommodate more than just damage spells continues...

Looks like Nicholson but I don't know. Either way, it's awesome.

Lore of Heavens Spells

Lore of Heavens spells listed WFRP 249. Spells adapted from Realms of Sorcery marked with a *

Spell	CN	Summary
Cerulean Shield	7 (-20)	+SL in Armor Points to all locations. If attacked by metal weapons, the attacker takes +WB damage.
Comet of Casandora	10 (-40)	Select a target point within Initiative score yards. After casting, roll Perception at the end of the next round: the comet strikes -SL x Init. Bonus yards away in a random direction. For every success, move the point of impact in a desired direction by Init. Bonus yards. Damage +12, +1 Ablaze, Prone to all in Init. Bonus yards of impact.
Fate's Fickle Fingers	6 (-10)	Pool Fortune Points of any allies within Init. Bonus yards of you, any may draw from the pool, first come, first served.
Finding Divination*	7 (-20)	Signs in the sky reveal an item’s location, either a specific item or general category (clean water, a horse). You learn the direction, but not the distance. This is as the crow flies, so barriers are not shown.
Omen*	1 (+20)	Discovery is timing is favorable or not for an action. GM rolls secret Intelligence test (let’s you know if you incorrectly or correctly interpret). The omen only holds true for 2d10 hours.
Project Spirit*	6 (-10)	Loosen your invisible spirit form from your corporeal body, allowing you to travel, hear, and see as normal (limited by physical boundaries).
Starcrossed	7 (-20)	For Initiative Bonus rounds, you can spend Fortune Points to force opponents in Willpower yards to reroll.
Signs in the Stars*	8 (-20)	Write a subtle message in the stars and their constellations. Requires a Secret Signs (Celestial Order) test to correctly interpret unless the ‘reader’ knows exactly what to look for. Necessarily, the messages will be simple.
T'Essla's Arc	7 (-20)	Lightning bolt strikes target in Willpower yards, +10 damage, +1 blinded.
First Portent of Amul	3 (0)	+1 Fortune, every +2 SLs +1 FP for Init. Bonus rounds
Second Portent of Amul	6 (-10)	Gain SLs in Fortune.
Third Portent of Amul	12 (-40)	+1 Fate Point, must be used by the end of the Init. Bonus rounds or lost.

Map of Bretonnia

Putting this updated Map here. It's based on the old WFRP first edition Bretonnia maps, but I edited the names in Paint.

Death and Doom!

No idea how to read French, but this woodcut feels right.

In the new WFRP, all Reiklanders start with a talent Dooming that sounds cool: a priest of Morr has foretold your death upon seeing you at birth. But in the game it's pretty lame: a flat bonus to XP for the next character and no mention of the specific prophecy received? Let's rad it up a little.

Roll on the charts below (or create a Dooming death yourself) to determine what the priest saw upon your birth. If you are faced with a situation that may kill your character but which does not match your Dooming, you gain 1 free Fortune (reroll). This occurs when you are (a) reduced to 0 wounds, (b) receive a critical wound, or (c) receive a deadly condition like Ablaze, drowning, Poisoned, etc. However, you must (a) make a Fear test, (b) receive a -10% to all tests, and (c) lose 1 Fortune point when you face a potentially deadline situation that suits your Dooming. The GM has final say if the situation could conceivably match your Dooming; if it is possible, although unlikely, then the Dooming still fits your situation. Doomings are suitably vague to convey this.

Roll Dooming based on the season you were born into (25% chance of each season, first 25 spring, etc.):

D100 DOOMING OF SPRING
1 to 4 Pride comes before a fall
5 to 8 Ivy will claw at your skin and prick like a rose
9 to 12 Health is not always healthy
13 to 16 Still waters run deep
17 to 20 The forest will strike back when the campfire is low
21 to 24 Do not pluck low-hanging fruit
25 to 28 The serpent is in the garden
29 to 32 Climb not the mighty oak
33 to 36 Beware fairy rings and standing stones
37 to 40 The land will reclaim what is hers
41 to 44 Do not stare directly into the light
45 to 48 Good intentions create bad situations
49 to 52 Do not accept trust lightly
53 to 56 There is always another problem
57 to 60 Light burns just as much as it heals
61 to 64 Radiance can’t illuminate all
65 to 68 Charity will cause your end
69 to 72 Underestimate no one
73 to 76 Birth is but the start of death
77 to 80 Provide no succor to the blind man
81 to 84 Do not pick up discarded coins
85 to 88 Twice for poison, thrice for a kiss
89 to 92 Fate is cruel, but ironic
93 to 96 A trick is not an illusion
97 to 100 You will be stabbed by your own knife

The other two seasons can be found in the Zweihander RPG rulebook in the Character Creation chapter (52-53 in my printed copy). These should give you an idea for what the doomings sound like though, even if you don't have Zweihander to do it for you.

Battle & Siege Rules

Rules for battles and sieges! It's a lot of combat, and your PCs may die! Anyway, these are written for my game so WFRP4 but should work on pretty much any ancient/medieval rpg. The rules are based on King Arthur Pendragon RPG as adapted in Red & Pleasant Land setting book, so they are not original but are adapted for my game.

The procedure is thus:

1. Setup. Preliminarily, figure out what's going on with the battle: whose forces are fighting whose and where. This is probably determined by whatever adventure you're on, but it should influence the Battle Table of enemies [see below] and possible events. After you know generally what the battle's 'about,' come up with a list of enemies and battle events the PCs will face: the Battle Table, which is a list of combat encounters from weakest/easiest to strongest/hardest. Then figure out the PCs' objective in the battle. Are they trying to kill a particular notable (even the enemy general)? Are they trying to get past the battle to the enemy camp? Simply survive their sector of battle? 
2. Enter the field - first encounter! This first fight will be important for setting the tone of the rest of the battle, and tell your players that. The number of combat rounds (hereinafter "#") to win will determine how many encounters the PCs will have before they reach their objective (set in step 1). For this first encounter, ask the party how they are entering the field and give them two options from the Battle Table (or provide a unique set of options based on the PCs options). For example, the PCs chose to be on the flank of the force and can either charge into the enemy or attempt to sneak around to a group of archers on the hill. Or it's a siege and they can either fight a group of soliders climbing ladders or face the siege tower about to drop its plank. Then fight as normal with combat rules (roll initiative, roll attack, etc.) and you/DM track the number of rounds (#) it takes to defeat them. Again, this is the number of encounters the PCs must go through to reach their objective.
3. Battle encounters continue. Now roll 1d5 + # to determine the next enemy or event from the Battle Table, and that's who attack the PCs next. The number of rounds each of these subsequent encounters takes determines the roll on the enemies chart, but # from the first encounter is how many encounters occur. After each subsequent encounter roll 1d5 + # of the last encounter to determine who the PCs fight next. So, the first encounter took 4 rounds to complete, then there will be four 'fights'/encounters in this battle; the next encounter takes 5 rounds to finish, roll 1d5 + 5 for the next encounter, etc.  Continue running encounters until the PCs win or are defeated.
4. The last encounter. For the last encounter, the DM should swap in the PCs' objective if that's a fight like defeating the enemy leader or fighting among the enemy's camp or whatever. If the PCs want to retreat before they finish their fighting, they simply fail their objective (not good if they were simply trying to survive the siege).

The Battle Table
You need a table of battle encounters for this to work. Start numbering it at 2, as this is the minimum you'll have. Some considerations in making your chart. If the battle is dire and the odds are stacked against the PCs' allies, increase the number of enemies in each encounter and difficulty of encounters, or vice versa for an advantageous situation (e.g. good thing you gathered extra allies through the last series of adventures). Below is a sample siege Battle Table I'm planning on using if that's the way my adventures go (note I have 2-3 PCs only right now, so the number of enemies reflects that, and this would be very difficult fight):

No.	Encounter	Attributes
2	5 Peasant Conscripts	30s, Spears or Axes +7, W12, AP3
3	5 Recruit Men-at-Arms	30s, WS 35, Spears or Swords +7, W12, AP5 shields
4	5 Men-at-Arms	30s, WS40, Spears or Swords +7, W12, AP6 gambesons + shields
5	5 Bowmen	30s, WS35, BS40, Longbows +7 (damaging, impale) or Maces +7, W12, AP4 gambesons
6	5 Men-at-Arms and volleys of arrows every other round	30s, WS40, Spears or Swords +7, W12, AP6 gambesons + shields; Dodge or Parry 2x arrows each volley or Dam. 9
7	5 Veteran Men-at-Arms	35s, WS45, Spears or Swords +7, W12, AP8 mail + shields
8	1d5+1 Knights Errant	35s, WS45, Sword +7, or Lance if mtd. +10 (impact, impale), W12, AP9 (part. Plate + shield) [Charger: S45, T35, WP15, W22, Large, trample +7]
9	Siege weapon (trebuchet) impact then 5 Veteran Men-at-Arms	35s, WS45, Spears or Swords +7, W12, AP8 mail + shields; Dodge or D15+1d10 and knocked prone, nearby structures collapse
10	1d5 Knights of the Realm	40s, WS50, Flail +9 (-10% defense) or Lance if mtd. +12 (impact, impale), W12, AP10 (Plate + shield) [Destrier: S50, T40, WP15, W22, AP5, Large, trample +8]
11	1d5 Knights of the Realm and volleys of arrows every other round	40s, WS50, Flail +9 (-10% defense) or Lance if mtd. +12 (impact, impale), W12, AP10 (Plate + shield) [Destrier: S50, T40, WP15, W22, AP5, Large, trample +8]
12	Named Lord + 1d5 Knights of the Realm	Lord 50s, WS65, Bastard Sword +12 (damaging, defensive) or Lance if mtd. +12 (impact, impale), W15, AP9 (Plate) [Destrier: S50, T40, WP15, W22, AP5, Large, trample +8]
13	Siege weapon (trebuchet) impact then 3 Honor Guard	45s, WS60, Bastard Sword +13 (damaging, defensive) or Lance if mtd. +12 (impact, impale), W14, AP9 (Plate); Fearless in battle, Reversal if win combat, Relentless (spend 1 adv. to ignore 1 condition); Dodge or D15+1d10 and knocked prone, nearby structures collapse
14	Marshall + 1d5 Honor Guard	Marshall 50s, WS70, Silverine Sword +11 (damaging, ignore 2 APs) or Lance if mtd. +13 (impact, impale), W17, AP12 (Plate+shield), Furious Assault (2x attacks if no move) [Destrier: S50, T40, WP15, W22, AP5, Large, trample +8]

[WFRP4] Bretonnia, Land of Chivalry!

I've been working on this toolkit-style setting guide to Bretonnia in the Warhammer world for awhile. Basically, I've always loved the way supplements like Vornheim and Red & Pleasant Land and D&D adventures with random encounter charts generate adventures from player characters just being in a place. On the other hand, the type of adventure hooks and NPCs and encounters I want trend towards the vanilla--knights and sorcerers and ogres and shit--and most of the well done, random encounter type products are oriented to the Weird. While something like that is wildly creative, not so useful to me as a DM as it always just results in silliess and I get bored.

Additionally, I find I really enjoy most running adventures with a lot of politics--different human factions, really. I'm a historian by education and my tastes run towards reading history books with real world insights about what humans do with violence and power.

Finally, I really do not enjoy running large dungeon crawls. I get bored, it's not exciting or tense for me. It's a good adventure oftentimes, but I have to keep it small. I'd rather see what effects the decisions of the players have on a web of factions or NPCs.

I've run some King Arthur Pendragon, but the system was too fiddly and created unrealistic situations, and the adventures for that are inspirational but boring railroads to actuall run (not a lot of player choice, get's boring for all involved). I decided I'd much rather have a freeform adventure idea kit than these, built for rpg systems I like.

So I started putting together the above to let me use as an adventure idea generator and run my campaign. Originally, I was going to run this with D&D/Lamentations of the Flame Princess home rules, but after a few sessions, I found I didn't like it as much as using the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rules. My players seemed happy with those rules too, so it was all good.

Here's what the setting book has:

• A list of Bretonnian (Old French) names, a random virtue/vice chart for creating NPCs
• A set of "common" encounters for when you just need some orcs or whatever, with WFRP stats. I use this stat block quite a bit.
• Rules for Bretonnian characters in WFRP4. Two new careers: Bretonnian Knights and Grail Pilgrims. Rules for Religion of the Lady.
• A list of major NPCs with traits and relations.
• A 100 entry encounter table based on a hexcrawl found on the internet called Hexcrawl of the Marcher Lords, Skerple's War entries from his blog, and other sources. There's some references to other d100 encounter tables that I'll remove/update one day.
• A list of 50 quests based on this awesome blog post so the DM can simply roll what the PCs lord or patron tells them to do, if all else fails. 

What it doesn't have is how I actually run the games which is Warhammery investigation - chaos influence or dark pacts, plus lots of brutal WFRP combat (mostly player instigated when an NPC with a sword tries to tell them what to do), plus a realistic/historicalistic medieval society. Nobles have ranks, power, peasants are oppressed and ignorant, bailiffs are a thing, and the noble families with castles and sworn knights fight over land. (I'm reading A Hundred Years War vol. 1 and its really inspirational for this game.) There are also ratmen and pegasus knights and elves.

To come, I really need to go through and convert all the D&D references to WFRP, but we'll see how it goes.

[Warhammer4Friends] Actual Play: The Siege

So two sessions worth of recaps this time. I've embedded the video play recordings here too. We had some pretty fun shenanigans, although our friend Brad had to drop out due to health/chemo awfulness.

The Siege
System: The inestimable Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th edition)
Characters: Boneshard, Norscan Berserker (marauder career); Regis d'Pubiens, Bretonnian Spy

Returning to the siege camp, Boneshard nurses his arrow wounds from the battle between Ermengard and Agravaine's forces. Agravaine has been driven back to his castle, on a hill overlooking the valley with the stream where the battle took place. Regis, gossiping in camp, learns the two sides agree to a prisoner exchange and that Duke Armand is coming to negotiate a peace. Ermengard comes to the characters, suggesting they would be well-rewarded if they killed Agravaine when he comes and removed that treacherous bastard.

About a week later, Lord Chrodegar asks Boneshard as a doughty guard to accompany him to the prisoner exchange, among them his son, Sir Chilfroy. There, Boneshard is called out by a brawny knight named Sir Bohemond the Strong, Honor Guard of Lord Agravaine.

After the exchange, the characters go to the feast with the Duke, Agravaine, and Ermengard in attendance. From their view at the low tables, things do not appear to be going smoothly. Lady Griselda, the adventurers' old sponsor, greets them, asking why they betrayed her. The adventurers make excuses, and Griselda informs them that she does not trust Agravaine and fears for the Duke. There is an arm wrestling contest between Boneshard and Sir Bohemond, ending in a close Boneshard victory, to the merriment of all.

After the feast, the heroes try to investigate Agravaine's tent, pondering following up on the idea to assassinate him. But Agravaine rides off to his keep with some horsemen before anything is achieved. Soon, they hear shouts from the Duke's tent, and discover he has been marked by an assassin, who escaped, with a triangle inside a circle, burned into his flesh. The Damsel Helvis has placed him into a magical slumber, delaying the deadly poison she believes infects him, but cannot heal him. Plans are made with Lord Ermengard to assault Agravaine's castle to kill him, while the host will assault the walls.

Entering the castle...

(Overall note: this was a really fun session for me to DM as it was action packed and the culmination of several prior sessions' worth of set up.)

Agravaine's Castle, side view.

The next session the adventurers, informed by a servant who was captured by Ermengard's knights, climb up the rocky clifface behind Agravaine's keep to several sewage grates for the keep. Hearing the sounds of assault on the walls, Boneshard pried off one of the grates leading into the keep's dungeon and they entered the darkness (they decided to shut their lantern). They heard the sound of breathing from beyond the shit they crawled through, and then were ambushed by something that could see in the dark while they could not. With luck, Boneshard managed to parry the sound of a swishing blade in the darkness.

Opening the lantern, they found themselves in a large cell with several ratmen, and a waking, hulking giant of a ratman - a rat ogre! They hew through the ratmen, and narrowly escape dying at the hands of the rat ogre by slamming the cell door shut and tossing a burning oil flask (molotov) onto him. They run away down the dungeon hall, heading for stairs and fling flaming oil towards their foes.

They then trick the two men guarding the dungeon door leading into the keep itself, they apparently being tasked with keeping the ratmen in. After bamboozling the knights guarding the door, the adventurers betray them and kill them. They then try to whistle their way out of the area ('nothing to see here boys'). After some quick exploring, they find themselves going down a long hallway behind the main feast hall leading to some stairs. At this point, both Boneshard and Regis are wounded.

Running down the stairs, Regis runs smack dab into the armored chest of Sir Bohemond, who is escorted two ratmen down the stairs. He slashes Regis badly with a sword before Boneshard tackles him. Regis lights two flasks with a burning wick. The adventurers then manage to wrench open Bohemond's facemask and smash a flask onto his face, while another flask is tossed into the ratmen. Bohemond runs screaming down the hall, the ratmen, one of which was clearly a sorcerer of some sort, scurrying after as the adventurers run up the stairs deeper into the castle.

After peeking into the throne room and seeing Lord Agravaine bent over a map table with his counselors, they decided the room's armored guards would be too much in their current state and climbed higher on the stairs. On the next floor, Regis snuck into the corridor to see a drowsy guard. He was not noticed, but his attempt to garrote the man fumbled terribly, the guard escaping and yelling alarums. The two high tailed down the hall, squeezing through a narrow window and swinging outside on a grappling hook. They succeeded in not breaking their legs (taking more wounds) as they swung onto the outer wall of the castle.

[WFRP] Ratmen!

Here are some rat baddies aka Skaven for Wfrp4. I made these for an adventure in which the adventurers plunged into the sewers beneath Bordeleaux, actually well-engineered as built by the Sea Elves in days of yore. The adventurers sought an ancient, golden Idol of Flies (it looked like a Fly yes), that the ratmen had obtained. They had sought the Duke of Bordeleaux's help, and I allowed them to bring some elvish embassy archers and knights as companions. Still they were pretty badly mauled by my ratmen, though so critical hits with flaming oil provided for success.

The stats are based on the skaven examples in the book, modified by yours truely. The book says use their specific monster "Traits" to create different stats, but that's fairly annoying and slow for no reason (you can simply add +30-40 to experienced wizard-types in Intelligence and WP, add some +10/+15 to skills, and voila, stats).

The equipment stats are based on the wfrp 2nd edition Children of the Horned Rat stuff which is super gnarly and awesome. The plague censor flails and death gas globes were taken from that, removing the +1d10 random damage thing because 4th edition does not do that. The spells for the Grey Seer are a mixture of spell ideas stolen from Horned Rat and Witch and Arcane Magick spells in the book. (Note: my Casting Numbers (CN) are for how I do magic (basically, harder spells are more difficult to cast, there's not a target number of successes), you'll have to make your own if following 4th edition spellcasting rules as written.)

Without further ado:

Skavenslaves

M	WS	BS	S	T	I	Ag	Dex	Int	WP	Fel	W
5	25	25	25	25	35	35	30	30	15	20	7

Traits: Spear or cudgel +5, disease (ratte fever), night vision, infected

Vermintail, the Grey Seer 

M	WS	BS	S	T	I	Ag	Dex	Int	WP	Fel	W
5	30	30	30	30	60	55	30	60	55	40	14

Traits: Staff of the Horned One 40 +6 and crippling pain, spells (magick 70, channel 65):

poison breath (CN-10, D+3, ignore AP),

creeping menace (CN-10, swarm of rats for 5 rounds: Small, WS35, bite +4, T25, WP15, W25, ignore psychology, can disengage, always deathblow if hit, inflict 1W each round),

crippling pain (CN-30, stunned, +20 Endurance or also unconscious, lasts 5 rounds, channel to continue), curse (CN-20, target -10 to all, cannot spend Fortune, lasts 5 days, need 1 object/part of target),

terror (CN-10, Cool test or Broken = # of negative SLs)

plague (CN-30, targets within 15 yards, Endurance-10 or immediately contract pneumatic Black Plague (fatigue -10, fever -10 all physical, daily death test +20))

toxic rain (CN-30, 55 yard diameter rain cloud, all -10 Endurance or +2 D, ignores AP, and Endurance or fall into Unconscious nightmare-filled sleep, lasts 5 rounds)

veil of flies (CN-10, 5 rounds, 5 yard diameter of caster filled with flies, -20 to all tests inside it and -20 to hit with ranged as obscured)

Plague Monk Censor-Bearers

M	WS	BS	S	T	I	Ag	Dex	Int	WP	Fel	W
5	45	35	35	35	40	50	30	30	30	30	12

Traits: Plague Censors +9 (-10 enemy parry, impact first rd. (+ones to D), plaguewind on hit: -20 Endurance or lose 1d5 additional W with no AP, +10 Endurance or +1 Corruption, also infected), robes, gasmasks, mutated, night vision.

Gutterunners

M	WS	BS	S	T	I	Ag	Dex	Int	WP	Fel	W
6	46	47	39	38	63	61	36	46	45	29	12

Traits: Poisoned dagger +5 (56) (-1 W/rd., -10 all tests until Endurance, then left Fatigued), sling +7 (57) (pummel), shield (AP5), tracker (56), wallcrawler (61)

Poisonwind Globadiers

M	WS	BS	S	T	I	Ag	Dex	Int	WP	Fel	W
6	46	47	39	38	63	61	36	46	45	29	12

Traits: poisonwind globe +4 ignore APs (57) (Blast 3, Dangerous, for 2 rounds after: -10 Endurance or take D4 ignoring AP)

Incendiaries are Blast 4, Dangerous, D=+1/SL Ablaze, range SB.