Summary 28

The party reviewed their position, since the last few seconds on the stairs appear to have lasted for weeks…! The two newer members of the party, the Marienburger squire (a contradiction to the alleged egality of that city if ever there was one, the Imperialists whispered to each other) Silas de Wit and the Kislevan healer (with the mysterious concoctions with the skull and crossbones markings) Lazarus Apthor, almost appeared like strangers.

Silas reminded himself of what he knew of your current position. The Colonies were set up with the aim of providing an outlet for population overflow and a major source of taxation income for the government. The hopes for the colonies were never realised and the Trans-Lynsk Colonies traditionally have proven more economic, despite their lack of food production. Indeed, the Wheatlands Colonies' primary advantage - indigenous agricultural land of good quality and raw materials (particularly tin) - proved their undoing, since Kislev expected them to be self-sustaining and yet loyal and generous with their taxation payments, whilst the Colonies increasingly began to resent the high taxation that was being demanded for either historic services or none at all. A number of catastrophes meant reliance upon Kislev at a time that Kislev itself was in need of aid from its colonies, which further widened the rift. The sale of two colonies to Marienburg without reference to the colonies involved did nothing to endear Kislev or the Tsar, despite guaranteeing central support for the remainder. Whilst known as the Wheatland Colonies, the full title is the United Commonwealth of Wheatland Colonies. There are seven individual colonies. They are the Commonwealth of Mazovia, the Protectorate of Nieuw Jutonsryk, Hunedoara, Raska, Ruthenia, Vlachistan and Petznak. The nominal capital is Preslav, located near the Belyevorota Pass. It was established there to guard the access route to the Motherland and due to the need to limit transport distances in the first days of the Colonies' existence. Today, Ohrid is generally regarded as the primary town in the Colonies, though each individual colony within the united commonwealth has its own administrative capital. Given the state of Preslav, you can only hope that this is true!

Both Silas and Lazarus had been doing some rummaging around whilst most of you were busy being briefed by the Veche. They both discovered that Imperialists (especially Marienburgers) were not popular. Imperialist immigrants had been arguing over articles of belief in the worship of Sigmar for years, but things got violent a few years ago. The authorities banned some cults and threw out some leaders. Some political in-fighting is still going on. An Imperialist immigrant called Rokewood turned up dead with three crossbow bolts in him. The verdict? Suicide.

Local politics is not much simpler either. Vassily Chelm, son of Saratokas Chelm (Captain of the Watch in Preslav) disappeared immediately on the news of his father's death. Reasons for this were varied and juicy. Two local characters stuck out. Elder Thordis who commands the Order of the Exaltation of the Teardrop is known to be the backbone of the town, but also follows a radical fundamentalist Ancient Spirits philosophy. Mezyk Seerak is a Master Goldsmith, posadnik (portreeve) and said to be a crook. He is Stannary Warden of the tin producing east and rakes off for his own pocket.

All this flew through your minds as you continued the climb down the stairs. Periodically, you discovered openings above the stairs, too small for humans really but Flint managed to crawl part way down one, but found little. Lothar speculated - from his immense knowledge of construction techniques and dwarf holds based upon his years of scouting for the Middenheim Farmyard Constabulary - on their use. Possibly of more relevance was a creature that chased Flint out, but did not pursue. It was some form of giant insect about 12' long and some 4' high and not much more comfortable in there than Flint! You continued to descend and entered an 'enormous' chamber, notable for its bones and blood strewn across the floor and three statues. The central one was of a female figure, unknown to you all, but dress not dis-similarly to the Chaos Marauders you met earlier. The other two were of Sigmar, one in his typical guise of the noble warrior and the other a more modern representation, which might be more familiar in Marienburg than in traditional Empire representations.

We will draw a veil upon the fight scene that followed. Certain individuals seemed to determined to wander off on their own or split the groups or seek to slay the 'chief bad guy' on their own in single combat. Our resident wizardess seemed to determine to slay her enemies with the sword rather than the spell. Most noble I'm sure, but the only noble warrior is a dead warrior. Silus' suggestions to try and knock through the sealed exit and get help were scoffed at as being 'un-heroic'. Fate points were lost and a debacle narrowly avoided. Flint lost an arm in a typically dwarfen heroic (stupid to the rest of us) determination to continually lead from the front. On the positive side, PCs did heroically manage to slay a number of enemies, frighten off others and descend a further one level (complete) and into a second. You managed to kill three humans, approximately 12 ghouls, two insectoid crawler creatures (that were apparently some form of domesticated creature to the ghouls) and some 16 skeletons.

A number of issues remain to be resolved or clues followed up:

1. Why are we here and what are we doing? Silas was rather (justifiably) concerned that the party seemed to have no idea what on earth they were doing down here, and what they were trying to achieve. Lothar's "to smite evil" did not convince him, and seemed worryingly out of character.
2. Humans were seen to be working in co-ordination with ghouls and all of them seemed to be working 'in the name of Sigmar'. Was this a front? 
3. Artwork in the first level showed a carved human face with beard and peculiar cap. However, when he particularly asked, Flint did see traces that suggested that the carving had been done over an earlier one, and this might have been bearded with the ringlets of the style seen in the strange dwarfen hold.
4. The statues to Sigmar and the unknown female figure did appear to be the subject of worship, but a very bloody one. 
5. The skeletal 'champion' was carrying a machaira (curved sword) containing what appeared to be magic sigils, scale armour gilded with gold (in poor condition - especially now) and a half-crescent shield holding a zoomorphic pattern (and also in a very poor state of repair). All were taken but we need to confirm who is actually carrying these cursed items.
6. The final human to be slain pre-end of session appeared to be better dressed and armed than the others. Indeed, he seemed to be wearing a crest on his tunic.
7. Some ghouls and some humans wore trinket jewellery bearing the name oZo. This was not familiar to any, except Jakob. He recalled that it is the name of a major pro-independence political group within Marienburg some 200 years ago. He also recalled that it still retains some current use amongst a few more hot-headed individuals who wish to develop a pan-Marienburg confederation within The Empire (and elsewhere). What relevance this has here seemed remote and unlikely to everyone except Jakob, who began to consider a political thesis as his next work.

Wolf has developed a nervous tic and appears rather hyperactive. Flint needs to develop an insanity. I am trusting the other relevant people to do their own insanity work too. Some of you are still feeling dispirited.

I will try my best to bring some more appropriate figures for the next session. If anyone has one that they wish to use for their own character, then please let me know. I have loaned out all my 'portable' figure boxes and with all the books etc it is rather difficult managing a whole case for the figures with everything else.

Experience
Jakob  25 
Lothar  25 
Wolf  20
Flint  40
Barballe  40
Silas  100
Lazarus  100