GM Blog: Episode 4 (Patreon)

Hi, all! I'm very ill, so this blog may end up being shorter than I'd normally prefer. Let's see where it lands, eh? I'm just going to keep typing until it's done.

Here we go!

Episode 4 romped through Chapters 6 and 7 of Enemy in Shadows, pages 55-79. This is the first example of an episode where I purposefully made many content cuts to support a swift pace. Episode 3 had already dedicated a good half of its run time to theorising and chat, so I wanted this one to move on to the sewers section, and the Daemon there, swiftly. It was time to put the potential threats to come on the centre stage.

However, I also wanted the players to have the freedom to wander the Schaffenfest without feeling too forced to that conclusion. So, I presented some of that festival without dwelling on all the details - if the PCs return again later, I can use any ignored material on a second or third visit.

So, let's get bullet-pointing!

• Key-Scene 1: Drunken Dwarf. I made sure this was presented early enough and ran it largely as described in Enemy in Shadows. Gottri is a pathetic figure, and one it turns out the PCs largely forget in Episode 5 as the horror of what they encountered kinda overwhelmed them. I'll hit Father Luitpold with a Sin point for this later when it is noticed. He had a care of duty there that he failed to recognise.

• Key-Scene 2: The Runaway Goblin. The specific details of this scene were changed, but the general outcomes for it were identical to how it's presented in Enemy in Shadows.
  So, in our version, Yume crept into the Zoocopeia and found the caged mutant Goblin on display. Then a punter threw a rock at the cage and knocked it over, causing the cage to burst open. This allowed the Goblin to flee, its chains somehow slipping free.
  Actually, on that, the 'somehow' and the 'coincidence' of this encounter was purposeful. Whenever Tzeentch Daemons are in the area, I'll be hinting at their influence by having the unlikely much more likely, and the unexpected or odd a somewhat common occurrence. The PCs may or may not notice this; we'll see.

• Shopping and L&S. Luigi and Salvatore have been a mainstay in my WFRP games ever since the M&S-inspired chain was added for the Warhammer Quest Imperial Noble character back in 1995. It provides a great way for PCs to access quality equipment, burning any funds they secure, and also offers a handy way to fence quality trappings for characters of almost any social background. It's especially useful for a game where I'm intending to keep the pace relatively high, meaning I don't want PCs wandering town for ages looking to make contacts with dodgy folks to sell their illicit goods to. So, the L&S chain, and what it represents, has been introduced early, meaning that if the PCs need a fence later, they will know where to turn.

• Medicine Shows. I decided not to include this for a potential later visit, mostly because I knew some of the PCs would likely want to daudle, which would extend the Scheffenfest section by another 20 minutes or so. I was keen to ensure the party hit the sewers in Episode 4.

• Festival Map. On that, I purposefully did not provide the PCs with a map of the festival. I did this for two reasons:
  1) I could decide on the fly what the PCs spotted next without fear of contradicting the pre-defined order, which mean Malthusius and his Zoocopeia could be dropped whenever I wished to keep the pace in place.
  2) It supported the chaotic nature of the festival and the 'explore to see what you find' nature of the place.

• Fortune Teller. I dropped Mystic Megret and replaced him with 'Dodgy Johann', an NPC 'seer' the PCs encountered in a pre-stream session. This one still makes me a little sad as I kinda love Megret (I wrote her character, after all), but I can use her later if the chance pops up.
  Johann was used to support the 'cannot scry the PCs' plotline that has been introduced by Alamennowyth (more in that in the Episode 3 blog), and is core to the over-arching plot for the entire campaign. I have a video with terrible sound from the pre-streams that we're trying to clean up that introduced 'Dodgy Johann' (the PCs named him that, not me) - I'll see if I can get that posted later for you all. No promises, though, as the sound is really bad.

• Random Events. I kept these to an absolute minimum to keep some form of pace for the session. We could easily have spent 2 sessions just touring the Schaffenfest - and normally I would do that if the PCs were looking to dive in and were enjoying it - but I'm keen to maintain a swift pace for this presentation. So, all we used were...
  1) The Beer Tent. A nice place to spot the Gottri subplot and annoy the PCs a little. It was interesting to see which PCs responded badly to him and which did not.
  2) Bigotry. A small dose of shit-flinging at our Wizard occurred, but we didn't dwell on that (even when he started levitating!).
  3) Fair Games. The party took part in a tug o'war. And lost. They also heard talk of Middenball, and Lukas later popped off to watch the Light College apprentices face off against the Celestial College apprentices, an event organised to normalise wizards in the Empire.
  Vendors. I kinda used these, but only in the loosest sense. The PCs had to get their Schaffenfest '12 steins from somewhere!

• Primary Locations. Again, I used these sparingly, and will use more of them should the PCs have time to tour the Schaffenfest later. However, I think it's more likely that the daemon-based panic will make sure that these locations are likely used, at best, as background noise.
  Wrestling Ring. Dropped. It provided no plot-relevant information and was just a pace-killer. It may be the first time I've ever not used this encounter when playing the adventure (and I've run this adventure a lot) because it can be a lot of fun. I may see if I can sneak it in later, but it seems unlikely.
  Livestock Market. Mentioned and nothing more. It will maybe score another mention or two, but will be otherwise background noise only.
  Jousting Lists. These were visited by the PCs in hope of securing access to the Elector Count of Middenland. Which, for obvious reasons, was pretty unwise...
  Festival Court. The PCs skimmed by here a couple of times. It will become a little more of a focus next episode.
  Zoocopeia. This deserves its own bullet point, so refer to the next one for more on this...

• Doctor Malthusius's Zoocopeia. So, this was changed a bit for a few reasons. Let's examine the two primary changes.
  1) Mutant Edict. To show the effect of the Mutant Edict, and its ratification as law in Reikland (and only Reikland, where it has somehow passed the Reikland Diet), Dr Malthusius is legally capturing mutated creatures for study in Altdorf. The fact that mutation is now legal in Reikland is going to be a pretty major plot point for Episode 6 as Morrslieb's light enacts... change.
  2) The Imperial Zoological Society. I wanted this society mentioned early in proceedings as it will be a key to events much later in the campaign when the PCs visit Altdorf Zoo. But that's a long, long way away. We'll also revisit the Zoocopeia at that point.

• Goblin Entry to the Sewers. I ensured this was too small for the PCs to enter to give them time to re-equip themselves as entry was secured by the Watch at the Festival Court. It also made the city a touch more secure from outside infiltration.

• Sewer Key. I made sure the manholes into the sewers were locked, trapping the PCs into a bottle episode in the sewers that they could not escape without returning to their entry point. It also made the sewers less useful to the PCs as a method of navigating the city without securing their own key. For reference, only the Crooked Fingers of Ranald (which Yume is a member of!) and the Watch have a copy of the manhole key.

• Sewer Map. I did not use an actual sewer map for the same reasons as mentioned above in Festival Map. Instead, I made some simple floor plans and used them as required for any situation the PCs encountered. Those floor plans will be posted for you all pretty soon. I'll make the overall map publicly available, and sort some sewer-tile pieces for the All-Access peeps.

• Optional Encounters. To keep the pace swift, I used only a few of these. Here's what I did and why.
  Amoeba. I used this as a simple combat encounter that would prime the party that the sewers were potentially dangerous and also soak up some of their Fortune Points before finding the 'temple'.
  Deadly Mould. The misnamed mould (it's hardly deadly!) was used as it was a fast encounter that the PCs handled with ease, and kept the PCs on their toes.
  Rats. They were mentioned rather than used to any degree. Birdie killed some smaller examples. The larger examples have already been eaten by the Guardian Daemon (more on that below).
  Thief. I dropped this encounter to reinforce that the sewers were now daemon territory, not a place for mortals to be easily navigating.

• Goblin Entry Point. I chose not to lead the PCs there as it was duplicating information. The PCs knew the Goblin entered by a small grate so did not need to see it again - all they were really interested in was tracking it down. Which, given it was leaving a blood-trail after being taken by the Daemon (which is not wholly bound to the temple in this version), was not a hard thing to do, and added a touch of mystery (why was it bleeding so profusely?).

• Crossed Pikes. I dropped this entirely for the reasons I mentioned in Optional Encounters: Thief, above. Yume is aware that thieves operate in the area already as she's a member of the Crooked Fingers, so there was no need to reinforce this with her by repeatedly mentioning Thief Signs which could easily have led to a detour. I wanted the PCs to resolve the temple by the end of the episode, so I kept all information pointing towards it.

• Gottri's Corpse. I simplified this encounter a little as the time remaining for the session was ticking. But, the core of it - dead Dwarf killed by Gideon that should maybe be investigated - remained in place. The PCs largely ignored it as a potential clue, though.

• Hidden Temple. I mostly ran this also as written, but changed three things significantly:
  1) Kuftsos Letter. I added his letter to the contents of the iron cabinet. Gideon extracted the letter when he killed Kuftsos, seeking to determine exactly who the Bounty Hunter was, and stored it here when it dropped bits of Gottri off for feeding the daemon.
  2) F.S. Handkerchief. I also moved the F.S. handkerchief to the cabinet. Gideon spotted it lying by the secret door, picked it up and dropped it inside the cabinet. He intends to tell Teugen of this carelessness of Steinhäger later - local thieves may have spotted it, after all. The carelessness with the handkerchief may be an influence for why Gideon decides to kill Steinhäger later (depending upon how that unfolds - we'll see in Episode 6!).
  3) Daemon Upgrade. As you'll find with most of LAWhammer's versions of printed encounters, the Daemon stats were significantly improved. In our version, Tuegen summoned a Daemon and bound it into the temple to protect it; however, the rise of magic in the city provided the Daemon with more freedom than intended. When Morrslieb is full, it can teleport itself out of the temple for a short while, and has been hunting through the sewers because of this.
  Note: The Daemon's partial freedom of the sewers, and it killing the Goblin and leaving a bloody trail, was always supposed to be the case for the revised edition as should be obvious given Mark Gibbon's piece I commissioned for Enemy in Shadows, page 54. But I left the Producer job before I could update that section on my last developmental pass, leaving a small artistic oddity behind that does not match the text.

And that should do for that summary!

We'll have Episode 5 up later today, and I'll see if I can sort a blog for that in short order.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this blog or feel I missed some important stuff from episode 4 that needs to be discussed, post here on Patreon, where the PCs can't see, or in the #all-access-lawhammer channel in LAWhammer, where, again, the PCs can't see!