Carroburg Blues
run by Tim Eccles at Tim Con II on Saturday 23rd October 2004

Overall, I think the game went okay. My intention had always been to write a straightforward mystery to solve. In other words, it was an intellectual puzzle for the players to resolve and not a lot of actual role-playing as such. We ended up playing for just over 4 hours - which was odd, as I had been worrying after about two that they were getting very close to finishing it off. If I run it again, I'd have to have a look at that but I don't think anyone minded too much. It did make the ending a little abrupt as we rushed off.

The set-up was as per the write up on the TimCon II page.

Players started the game with a number of rumours picked out of a bag at random, based upon how successful they had been with an Intelligence check. Some of these rumours were helpful, some were irrelevant and others plain rubbish. We then started the game at the scene of the crime. There was some easy information at the site and from the Watchman ordered to provide a report of the night's activities. The PCs were then on their own.

Basically a fairly senior member of the Guild of Rat Catchers and Rakers (Rechengild) had found the source of the Dyers' Guild (Farbergild) original secret. This was that they had been given dying technology (or at least lots of new colours) by a Nurgle cultist who used insects to make up the colours. He thought he could make it rich and was using the statue to summon up the original demon that had provided the power. The Guild of Rat Catchers and Rakers had been originally set up to close down this centuries and centuries ago, but everyone had forgotten. I did not go heavily into the background, but Alazari was more a powerful wizard who chained the demon rather than an actual cultist. Of course, the idiot trying to copy Alazari had not the same power.

Sub-plots included a Slaaneshi cultist trying to stop the "Nurgle" cultists, a series of murders of the Rechengild members, the mysterious Cathayan Han Su Lou, a Norscan businessman undercutting guild rates and with his fingers in many pies, a heretical alchemist at loggerheads with both the Dyers Guild and the city and religious authority who had discovered something of the plot and a bunch of street gangs including Antonius Blehr's Nieuw Arbeit.

Carroburg was a rather friendly city, with an efficient bureaucracy and useful and informed characters in the elite. This was primarily to ensure that we got on with resolving the mission. That said, it was nice to run a WFRP city where everyone and everything was not inept, corrupt, useless and the enemy within. I think that Carroburg is a pragmatic city with a craft-based industrial attitude that values the need for keeping things working, and so I think it gave a good feel to the city