If you're not saving this reveal for a later update, can we know what he did? I feel like he definitely did a lot of evil things for his sorcery, but was there (like is probably going to be the case for the sort of person who gets into dark magic for nothing but seeming curiosity) a pattern of abusive behavior beforehand?
[] No. You'll send him on his way, and hopefully never lay eyes on the man again.
[] Mentor a Wizard. Your father could have, should have, turned himself in to the colleges. Finding another in his situation, one who needs you to guide them, and seeing them become a respected magister will redeem him and you both.
[X] Yes. You'll arrange a stipend at the chapterhouse later, and he will meet you by the docks tomorrow morning.
[X] Mentor a Wizard. Your father could have, should have, turned himself in to the colleges. Finding another in his situation, one who needs you to guide them, and seeing them become a respected magister will redeem him and you both.
Preferebly I would want either a wizard of light or of shadow. The Light as they are the most anti Chaos of the eight wind and second only to Death agains necromancy. As well as their ability to detect lies. Shadows becase they are the best spies and infiltrators you could have.
Max is a thug, and probably have some criminal connections. What he can offer us besides dumb muscle is a new "perspective" on certain matters. Even if he is unsited for the job we could still try to use him as a informant, after we put the fear of Sigmar and whatever other gods he worships. Still we should take care not to give him any information that might tempt him.
You voted to hire Max Ernst, and also to focus on the idea of sending a wizard for training as a kind of validation-by-proxy for Markus' unresolved issues surrounding his own father.
VIII - Leaving Altdorf
Eventually the fire that consumes you burns out, leaving only cold ashes in your heart and a bone-deep weariness in your soul. You part ways with Josef, pathetically grateful for the way he seems determined to ignore your breakdown, and return to the chapterhouse alone. You are quite sure that some of the other templars who see you that evening know of the turmoil that gripped you, the truth written for anyone to see in the red of your eyes and the cold languor of your movements, but they don't say anything either. They understand better than most what you are going for, but as you stay silent when they bend and all but break, so too do they offer you the same courtesy.
Nobody who joins the Witch Hunters is coming from a happy place in their life. Zeal can carry a man into the priesthood, duty into the army, but to dedicate your life to grappling with the very worst that mankind has to offer requires something altogether more bitter. For some it is grief, others hate, and for the worst of you all pure conviction, but none of it makes for pleasant conversation or the building blocks of healthy camaraderie. So you eat a cold meal at a lonely table, exchange a few words with the silent servants, and retire alone to collapse into your narrow bed. Morr at least is merciful, and your sleep is deep and untroubled by dreams.
You are woken by the servants just before the fifth bell, the sky still dark outside and the city as close to silent as it ever gets. In silence you wash yourself in the small bucket of water they bring and shave the stubble from your neck and chin, ruefully considering your utter inability to grow a beard worth the name. Then you kneel before the small icon of Sigmar over your bed and murmur a quiet prayer, hoping in your heart that the Heldenhammer will give you the opportunities you wish for so ardently. Not wealth or fame, but simply a chance to learn for yourself if your father could have ever avoided his fate. Then you dress and arm yourself and leave the chapterhouse behind.
Promotion to Inquisitor comes with greater access to the order's armoury, and signalling your willingness to leave a trained riding horse behind - for such a steed has no place on a trading barge like the Berebeli, certainly not for the week or more you expect it will take you to reach Bögenhafen - earned you appropriate considerations from the quartermaster. Your old leather jack has been taken in for repair, and in its place you now have a long brigandine coat and a shirt of chainmail so surpassingly light and resilient you are sure it must be dwarven work. Along with the armour comes a full set of sombre but stylish day wear you would not be embarrassed to wear into court; useful, considering where your career will likely take you. The Templars frown on decadence, but you are increasingly likely to be the face of your organisation to the outside world, and duty demands that you look the part.
For simplicity's sake, I elected to handle purchases off screen. Markus has traded in his old riding horse and leather jack for a set of armour that will actually stand up to open battle. Plate would of course be better, but such things are simply beyond the price range of any save a knightly order.
Altdorf never really sleeps, but there is still a kind of peace in the air as you make your way through the early morning gloom to the docks. Gulls caw in welcome as the skies slowly begin to lighten, matched by the tuneless whistling of the dung collectors as they push their reeking cargo through the streets. Nobody speaks or even pretends to have seen you until you reach the section of the docks where the Berebeli is meant to be tied up, at which point Max Ernst steps out of the nearest alleyway and nods to you.
"Ho there, Templar," he says in a rough voice, and between the growl and the shadows under his eyes you wonder if he managed to sleep at all last night. "The boat's up ahead, but you'll want to see this first, I think."
Frowning, you make your way over to where he stands, and your mood hardly benefits from the sight of two dead bodies in the alleyway behind him. Dockworkers, at a guess, killed recently enough that the blood pooling around them has cooled but not yet congealed. The smears on the ground suggest that someone dragged them out of sight, but they can't have come from very far away.
"Did you do this?" you ask, just to be certain.
"Nope," Max shakes his head, grimacing at the motion. You wonder how much brandy he had after you left the tavern last night, and how much he regrets that decision now. "Just found them. Told the old guy and he said they'd probably gotten drunk and knifed each other."
Markus makes an Average (+20) perception test, skill is 62, roll is 95. Fail.
Looking the two bodies over, you can't see anything that would contradict that impression. The wounds on their necks and bodies could have come from a knife, wielded with sufficient skill or raw fury, and yet something about the idea prickles at your instincts in a way you cannot really put a name to. It is only when you put a boot to the nearest body and roll it over that you realise what is bothering you.
"I've seen these two before," you mutter, casting your mind back to earlier in the week when you arrived in Altdorf with Lady Isolde. Yes, it is definitely them; the two men who briefly confused you for someone else they were looking to meet, now dead and cold at your feet. A coincidence, surely, for you cannot see how they could possibly be connected to your current investigation in a town so far away from here, but even so there is something about this situation that bothers you. "Did they have any identification on them?"
"Nope," Max grunts, squinting down at the dead bodies, "No papers or guild marks, anyway. Just a couple of daggers and some silver."
You're not blind to the implication that he looted them and expects to keep the proceeds, but after a moment of consideration you decide that you really don't care. Nor can you afford to spend more time on what appears to be either a brutal falling out between friends or at worst a simple murder. Your assignment in Bögenhafen awaits, and Josef will not be able to wait forever.
"The watch will handle it," you say, shaking your head and turning away, "Come, let us depart."
The Berebeli reflects its master in all important respects, being fat and sturdy and filled with far more bottles of wine than you would expect any one man capable of drinking, and when you arrive Josef has just finished rigging the sails for an impending departure. He seems almost obnoxiously cheerful in the cold morning air, hustling and bustling and driving the two deckhands (who seem far more reasonably tired) to distraction as he checks everything is in its place.
"Ah, there you two are, welcome," he calls out as you step aboard, "We'll be setting off in a few minutes, I think. Have either of you ever crewed a river barge? No? Then make yourselves comfortable in the cabin for now."
That's as polite a request as you've ever heard to get out from underfoot before someone treads on you, so with a quiet chuckle you comply. The Berebeli keeps most of its cargo on the main deck, massive piles of wooden crates held in place by thick chains and protected by heavy cloth coverings, but there's enough room between the stacks to make your way over to the main cabin area near the centre. The interior is a cosy little space, packed full of hand-crafted furniture and assorted knickknacks from across the Empire, and while there are a pair of rooms towards the back you can already tell those are reserved for Josef and his workers. Instead, a pair of cots have been set up against the far wall for you and Max to make use of, each labelled with the faded crest of the Altdorf state army - surplus gear from an old campaign, you expect, and for the sake of your good mood you decide not to wonder whether the quartermaster who sold it to your old friend was technically allowed to do so.
"Huh," Max grunts, all but collapsing into his cot and putting his back to the cabin wall, "Surprised you're not grabbing one of the rooms for yourself. Being noble, and all."
You're not surprised by the comment or the implied question; indeed, you'd be more concerned if Max chose not to ask. He is your agent now, so of course he wishes to get a grasp on your attitude and what it means for him and his work as soon as possible. A naive young scion might bluster about not letting mere social status get between friends and comrades, but Max would not believe that even if you honestly meant it. You are a noble, you are a Witch Hunter. These things define you and divide you, setting you apart from and above others, and it does neither of you any favours to pretend otherwise, especially not when your authority over this man is still new and as of yet untested.
"Josef is an old man, and his boathands have a baby girl in there to take care of," you say instead, settling your pack down under the cot and rolling your shoulders to work the stiffness out, "What kind of man would I be to turf either of them out for the sake of a week's modest comfort?"
Max nods at that, as you expected. A noble disdaining the privileges of their birth is one thing, a man choosing to prioritise chivalrous conduct over his own comfort is quite another. Part of you is curious about how a man like Max Ernst sees the world, having lived below the likes of you and your family for so long, but your curiosity is not a strong enough motive to breach propriety in such a way.
As promised, the Berebeli gets underway shortly after you have settled in, and within the hour you are passing the walls of Altdorf and entering the great natural harbour of the Reiksport beyond. Here can be found the majority of the capital's shipyards and long term berthing facilities, and as you emerge onto the deck you get a fine view of the Imperial First Fleet. The sun has more or less risen now, and silhouetted against the dawn the dozens of sailing ships resting at anchor make for an impressive sight indeed, their decks bristling with cannon and their vibrant pennants snapping in the breeze.
"You know, I heard not even half of these things have seen the sea, much less a battle worth telling of," Max grunts, leaning against the railing and scowling at the ships as they roll slowly by. You think that perhaps the steady rocking motion of the barge is upsetting his stomach, but if so he makes a show of not letting it get to him. "Seems a real waste. All that tax money for a bunch of glorified barges."
He's testing you again, trying to figure out how much overt patriotism you are going to demand during your work together, but that doesn't mean he's wrong. The First Fleet has never seen open sea battle as far as you know, and while Marienburg's tolls on military traffic remain as high as they have been for the last few generations that seems unlikely to change.
"They serve a valuable purpose as deterrence, should any seek to sail up the Reik and attack," you say, though you know your tone is far from the most convincing. "One goes to war with the fleet one has; better, then, to have a fine one ready than to let your guard down."
Personally, you suspect the Fleet's real purpose is one of revanchism. Marienburg will not be conquered or Westerland reclaimed without a sizable fleet, and that is a dream many generations of Emperors have held close to their hearts. Personally you are a bit more ambivalent on the matter than the hoary old men who used to sit around your father's table and agitate for the campaign, for no matter how corrupt he might have been Dieter was still the rightfully elected Emperor when he granted the province its independence. Nor can a campaign of reconquest be fairly said to be in honour of Sigmar, for the Jutones never pledged to the Heldenhammer, being conquered instead by Sigismund the Second around the fifth century, and to claim legitimate ownership of the Conqueror's legacy would perforce mean laying claim to what is now a significant swathe of Bretonnia and the Border Princes.
Around midday you reach the quiet village of Lethov, at the very edge of the Altdorf Flats, and there Josef ties up the barge and goes ashore to pay the access fee for the Weissbruck canal. You elect not to go with him, lest the sudden appearance of a witch hunter give people the wrong idea, and instead broach conversation with Wolmar and Gilda, your old friend's employees and boathands.
"Aye milord, we've been this way many a time," Gilda says with studied politeness, keeping her gaze lowered as she answers your question, "Them that run the canal charge a toll for its use, true enough, but far less than the tolls for taking cargo of any size past Carroburg. Faster, too."
"You know, I always did wonder," Wolmar, her husband, chimes in with a nod at the humble looking lockhouse that governs access to the canal beyond, "Why there's three sets of heraldry displayed at each end. Normally there's only one noble house that lays claim to a place like this."
Markus makes an Average (+20) Lore (Reikland) test. Target is 60, roll is 04, astounding success (6SL)
"Those are the sigils of House Holswig-Schleistein, House Holzkrug and House Gruber," you say, studying the symbols and noting with some distaste how faded the paint on some of them has gotten. "Respectively, the Emperor's own household, one of their biggest rivals, and a newly elevated house from Weissbruck proper."
Were you among peers you might refer to the Grubers as upjumped merchants who bribed their way into a claim that their blood really does not support, but airing the business of the nobility before the peasantry never works out well for anyone.
"Huh. Which of them's in charge, then?" Max Ernst asks, poking his head out from where he was previously taking a nap under the cargo sheet.
"All three share the profits equally, but Gruber handle the day to day business," you explain, teasing the details out of memories of grumbling complaints voiced around some forgotten banquet table, "It is said they exploited the rivalry between the two old houses to secure the funding and land grants for the canal in the first place, and elevating a neutral third party as middlemen was deemed preferable by both to having their ancestral rivals take control of such a profitable holding."
"Well, damn, alright," Max chuckles, shaking his head and laying back down again, "Not too fond of merchants most days, but it must have taken some real stones to pull that off. Colour me impressed."
You grimace at the praise, but there's no point in voicing your objections to it here. The Grubers will either prove themselves worthy of the honour bestowed upon their bloodline or they won't, and there's no sense in worrying about it now. Even if the very idea of a merchant clan buying its way into the gentry displeases you on principle. Josef's return offers a ready distraction in any case, especially when he looks as grim as a man on his way to a funeral.
"Problems with the toll?" you ask as he stumps back aboard, considering your options for scaring the local bureaucrats into compliance if he says yes.
"No, we're all paid up and free to go," Josef shakes his head, pausing where he is instead of heading straight for the wheel as you might expect, "Only… seems we've got some interesting times ahead. Old Karl-Franz just sent the state troops into Ubersreik, kicked the old Jungfreud family out of their manors."
"He what?" You exclaim, spluttering like someone just threw a bucket of cold water over your head. The Jungfreud family is one of Reikland's oldest and most powerful of noble houses, and more importantly, their title is directly above that of House von Bruner in the feudal hierarchy of the province. Or rather, it was. "On what grounds?"
"Hell if I know. Something about treason, or the old Archduke gearing up for war against his neighbour?" Josef shakes his head, sucking his teeth as he works through the implications. "Anyway, apparently the family managed to get out of Ubersreik in time, ran off back to their holdings in Black Rock, up in the mountains. Nobody knows what happens now, which you can bet is going to make business real complicated for a while."
"The Emperor… sent in the army?" Wolmar blinks, looking more interested than horrified, like this is simply a piece of local gossip that Josef is passing along, "Can he do that?"
Markus makes an average (+20) Lore (Law) test. Target is 60, roll is 97, failure. Fortune point spent for reroll, result is 12, impressive success.
Markus is not an ordinary man, and is marked out by the gods for greater things than most. To reflect this, he has three fate points. Whenever he would die or otherwise suffer catastrophic personal harm, he may spend a fate point to miraculously survive.
Fate points are lost once spent, and can only be regained by great acts of personal heroism and religious significance, such as saving an entire town from daemonic incursion.
He also has four fortune points (normally he would have three, as fortune is equal to fate, but due to the Lucky talent he has one more). These allow him to reroll failed tests or act outside of his turn in combat.
Fortune points refresh at the beginning of every day (or other narrative timeframe, in the case of an update that covers an extended period of downtime).
You consider the question, casting your mind back through everything you've learned during your upbringing and more recent studies. Unfortunately, the answer is more complicated than you might like. Certainly, as Emperor of the realm and Grand Prince of Reikland, Karl-Franz has the legal authority to strip a noble of his title and holdings, and a charge of treason would be more than justifiable cause to do so. Yet the Jungfreuds are an ancient and noble line, with all attendant rights and privileges - such charges should by rights have merited a trial before the assembled peers of the Reikland Diet, not a sudden pronouncement of guilt delivered by the state troops at spearpoint. Is the lack of such proceedings enough to render the judgement illegal? You don't know. As far as you can recall, the issue is all but unprecedented.
Everyone is looking at you, you realise. Of course they are; you are a nobleman yourself, and a sanctioned agent of the Cult of Sigmar besides. Your judgement in this matter is, if not necessarily law, as close as they are going to get. Yet… what do you even say?
Article:
What judgement do you make?
[ ] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[ ] The Emperor oversteps. The Archduke deserves a fair trial under the law, and his peers in the Reikland Diet are entitled to hear the evidence and have their voices heard. To depose a vassal by force of arms absent such processes is nothing more or less than tyranny.
[ ] Ours Not to Reason Why. Regardless of your own thoughts on the matter, it is not proper for the affairs of high nobility to be banded about by a common barge master and his crew. You cannot stop them from gossiping, but you can at least refuse to encourage it.
[X] Ours Not to Reason Why. Regardless of your own thoughts on the matter, it is not proper for the affairs of high nobility to be banded about by a common barge master and his crew. You cannot stop them from gossiping, but you can at least refuse to encourage it.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
Basing this off the fact that Markus is willing to give Dieter the Incompetent the benefit of the doubt on selling Marienburg its independence, to me that indicates a considerable respect for and deference to The Emperor as Institution, probably more than a single sharp action against a vassal family will break.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[X] Ours Not to Reason Why. Regardless of your own thoughts on the matter, it is not proper for the affairs of high nobility to be banded about by a common barge master and his crew. You cannot stop them from gossiping, but you can at least refuse to encourage it.
I mean, Karl Franz is obviously in the right here, OOC. That's just part of his character.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[X] The Emperor oversteps. The Archduke deserves a fair trial under the law, and his peers in the Reikland Diet are entitled to hear the evidence and have their voices heard. To depose a vassal by force of arms absent such processes is nothing more or less than tyranny.
I love the Big KF (Prince AND Emperor) as much as the next person, but Markus seems like a man who believes in the law first before he does any man.
Extrajudical killing notwithstanding of course.
Also, this probably puts little bro's noble title in jeopardy, so the Von Bruners have it in their interest for the Emperor to not bypass the Diet. We gotta support our younger sibling!
[X] The Emperor oversteps. The Archduke deserves a fair trial under the law, and his peers in the Reikland Diet are entitled to hear the evidence and have their voices heard. To depose a vassal by force of arms absent such processes is nothing more or less than tyranny.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
He is the Emperor, Sigmar's chosen. So long as he doesn't side with Daemons, his word should be law.
[X] Ours Not to Reason Why. Regardless of your own thoughts on the matter, it is not proper for the affairs of high nobility to be banded about by a common barge master and his crew. You cannot stop them from gossiping, but you can at least refuse to encourage it.
[X] The Emperor oversteps. The Archduke deserves a fair trial under the law, and his peers in the Reikland Diet are entitled to hear the evidence and have their voices heard. To depose a vassal by force of arms absent such processes is nothing more or less than tyranny.
[x] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
Fun fact in the original version of the Enemy Within adventure, your players encounter Karl Franz in person in the last book!
He's a doddering old fool who drools everywhere and then shits himself and dies in front of you.
Then his son has a psychotic break, turns into a chaos spawn and eats Boris Todbringer.
In fairness to the authors this is because Enemy Within predates basically everything about the Empire and indeed the rest of the setting. Like the first adventure came out I think the same year as the actual tabletop game? So Karl-Franz didn't have a character, much less a tabletop model and associated lore at this point.
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
Without knowing anything about the WFRP adventures this is based on, all the doppleganger shit going on leads me to suspect that there's been some kind of plot to replace the emperor or nobility or some other shit. Either way, this seems like a fun option for Markus.
In case this is/was a concern for anyone else I am using the 4e version of the adventure as inspiration but changing a bunch of stuff as we go, so nobody needs to worry about accidentally spoiling themselves or others.
Talking about old lore and how the setting has changed over time is just too much fun to try and stringently avoid.
(For example in the 4e version they tried sticking to super grognardy lore for some reason? And as a result they hinged several major plot points in the back half of the adventure on the idea that Nordland was not an electoral state but was in fact a vassal of Middenheim, and another set of plot points are dependent on the province of Solland still existing.)
[X] The Emperor has the right. The action is legitimate, and if the proper forms were not followed, you can only trust that Karl-Franz had good cause to bypass the Diet and enact such a summary judgement upon his wayward vassal.
[X] The Emperor oversteps. The Archduke deserves a fair trial under the law, and his peers in the Reikland Diet are entitled to hear the evidence and have their voices heard. To depose a vassal by force of arms absent such processes is nothing more or less than tyranny.
