EPISODE 4: RETURN TO TALAGAD

Serion and Dr. Schafer stand waiting for the three ogres to reach them. Torsten, seeing the oncoming danger pushes through the remaining crowd to reach his companions. Serion, having some knowledge of the more unique beings of the Old World addresses the ogres. Knowing that the one thing that ogres prize above all else is food, Serion decides that offering them food would be the best way to avoid conflict. Serion offers the ogres an oxen from the caravan but the ogres are not happy with this. They decide that they want more, maybe even some of the villagers. Serion makes a deal to let them have one oxen straight away then another oxen each if they accompany the villagers and adventurers to Breitblatt. Torsten is not happy about this, stating that the oxen are too valuable to be given away. Serion and Dr. Schafer both say that it would be better to give the oxen now than to have to fight three ogres and protect the villagers. The ogres discuss the proposal and decide to accept. The lead ogre, strides over to the nearest oxen and rips it from the cart it is tethered too. With one great bite, half of the poor oxen is gone. Two women from the group of villagers left on the road complain about the situation to Dr. Schafer. Luckily, the silver tongued physician manages to placate the women and they return to the caravan grumbling. The ogres, have a change of heart and decide that they cannot be bothered to travel to Breitblatt and will instead go to Talabheim. The trio, although annoyed at the ogres, are pleased to have left the encounter with just the loss of one oxen and no casualties.

Once the villagers have reassembled on the road the caravan travels on toward Breitblatt. As they travel, Dr. Schafer talks with a man from Hochland named Mattias Keller. He does not get much out of him other than that there is an intense rivalry between those from Hochland and Talabheim.

After lunch, Andreas is sober and chatting with villagers. Dr. Schafer is mingling with the travellers whilst Serion scouts ahead. Nothing happens for the rest of the day as the villagers travel unhindered along the road. In the evening the trio split watch over the camp. The evening passes quietly but in the morning Torsten is woken by the sound of wailing coming from the south of the camp.

The morning of the third day does not start well. The trio head to the source of the wailing. When they arrive they find a group of peasants surrounding a tent containing a bloody scene of carnage. The tent itself is slashed, inside are the bodies of a man, woman and child. All mutilated as if by a wild animal. Dr. Schafer manages to move the watching villagers on, allowing the trio to investigate the scene more thoroughly. Torsten looks inside the tent but can deduce no more than there are three corpses inside. Realising that he is probably more suited to the task, Dr. Schafer examines the bodies. He notices that although the bodies have been mauled, they have not been eaten, which he concludes a wild animal would have done. Serion searches outside the tent and finds tracks like a wolfs heading away from the camp. He realises quickly though that the tracks are badly faked and that the killer was most likely human rather than animal. Serion asks some nearby peasants who the dead people were. He discovers that they are the bodies of a Hochlander hunter and his family. Serion looks inside the tent and finds a silver sigmar pendant, the chain cut with a blade around the neck of the male and a small bag of pennies. Not knowing what else to do and their investigations at a dead end, the adventurers get some peasants to burn the bodies and say prayers.

The villagers move on towards Breitblatt until lunchtime when they all stop. During this time, Torsten wanders amongst the resting villagers listening to their chatter. An elderly woman approaches Dr. Schafer asking for his help. He immediately goes with her and does not return for some time. When Dr. Schafer rejoins his companions he reveals that one of the peasant children is showing symptons of the plague.

After lunch the travellers continue their journey. Andreas is drunk again, much to the annoyance of Torsten. He has also developed a cough like some of the villlagers. Dr. Schafer makes arrangements for the sick child to be taken the rest of the journey on one of the villagers carts.

The trio spend the rest of the afternoon trying to solve the murder in the tent from the morning. Serion realises that the faked tracks by the tent must have been made be a forester and that the dead man, being a hunter, had no bow. Dr. Schafer makes a search of the vllagers carts in the hope of finding the missing bow. In the evening, after having no luck finding the missing bow, Torsten decides to confront an old hunter. He demands to search through the mans belongings but like all other attempts by the adventurers, fails to find any clues to the identity of the murderer.

In the morning the adventurers decide to try and flush out the murderer and thief of the bow by holding an archery competition. They hope that the thief is arrogant enough to use the bow to win some money. Serion declares that if any man can shoot better than he, they will win a gold crown, giving them a good start to their new life in Breitblatt. Serion selects a tree and stabs his dagger into the bark. He proclaims that any man that can get closer to the dagger than him will win the gold crown. One by one the hunters and archers take their turn, some manage to hit the tree, a few even manage to get within a couple of inches of the dagger. Serion, feeling confident in his own abilities takes aim. He looses his arrow and it lands exactly next to the dagger, the crowd are amazed at the unbelievable accuracy that the elf shows. Graciously, Serion gives the runner up the gold crown. Unfortunately, and perhaps predictably, the trio fail to notice anyone using the stolen bow. Having reached yet another dead end, the adventurers concede that the case is perhaps beyond their investigative abilities and decide to stop actively trying to solve it.

At midday they finally arrive at Breitblatt. The few villagers living in Breitblatt turn out to greet the newcomers. The travelling peasants cheer the trio and thank them for their safe arrival at their new home. The trio and Andreas decide to leave straight away to return to Talagad, so after saying their farewells start the journey back.

On the first day of the return trip, Serion and Torsten start to develop coughs. They begin to worry that they have caught something from the peasants on their journey to Breitblatt.

On the second day, after several hours of carefree travel, Serion hears a rather unnatural bird call from up ahead. The adventurers quickly leave the road and hide in the bushes with weapons drawn. Eight beastmen head straight towards where they were on the road. Without a second thought, Serion launches an arrow into the right arm of a pig faced beastman causing it to drop the axe it was holding. In a blur, Serion nocks a second arrow and looses it into the crowd but it whizzes harmlessly through and into the undergrowth behind. Torsten levels his crossbox and fires into the crowd, but like Serion's second arrow it sails harmlessly past. Serion fires another two arrows, this time the first makes contact with the right leg of a dog faced beastman and the second strikes a duck faced beastman square in the chest. Having recovered from the intitial shock of the ambush, the beastmen refocus and start to advance on their hidden assailants.

Realising they are outnumbered, the trio drop their missile weapons and draw their respective swords, maces and daggers. As if from nowhere, a group of figures rise from the surrounding undergrowth. The men are heavily camouflaged and each wields a powerful looking bow. As one, they all let fire on the beastmen, felling each and every one without reply. Once the dead have been stripped of weapons and removed from the road the camouflaged men introduce themselves as Knights of the Verdant Field. They reveal that the rest of the way to Talabheim should be clear as they have travelled from that direction.

The travellers thank the Knights for their assistance and continue on their journey. As they walk, Dr. Schafer reveals that he is not actually a physician and that Axel Holst, the man he has been searching for was investigating chaos cultists in Talabheim when he went missing. Serion and Torsten laugh and reveal that they had already come to the conclusion that Dr. Schafer was not actually a real physician. They decide to refer to him by his real name, Johann.

As the evening approaches the travellers make camp and rest in preparation for the remainder of the journey. The night passes uneventfully until just before dawn when Serion is taking last watch.

In the morning mist, Serion sees several shadowy figures on the other side of the road. The humanoid figures disappear quickly into the trees. Serion quietly rises and nimbly crosses the open road. He finds the tracks left by the figures and stealthily follows them through the trees towards the river. He follows the tracks right up to the riverbank where he discovers large clusters of footprints and markings where sacks could have been dropped or dragged. On closer inspection of the scene he finds traces of a fine silvery powder on some of the rocks. Finding nothing else in the immediate area, Serion takes some of the powder and returns to Torsten and Johann, who have woken to find him missing.

After Serion shares his findings with the pair, Johann tells them that it is most likely a chaos army sending scouts ahead to attack Talabheim. Torsten thinks it more likely that they are posioning the water in Talabheim, making people ill. Unable to prove any theory to be true, the adventurers prepare to carry on their journey back to Talagad.

When the adventurers arrive in Talagad, they find it to be full of ill people, more so than when they left. Andreas returns home to his family whilst Serion, Torsten and Johann head straight to the Eel Inn to collect their passes into Talabheim. When they arrive at the inn they discover that it has been returned to its normal state as an inn. There is no sign of the magistrate or anyone else that could give them their passes. They ask where Howenlow can be found, only to be told that he has fled the plague and is now inside Talabheim. The only option left for them is to try the Municipal office. On their way they stop at the Bald Badger, where Heinz tells Johann that the Wizards Way into Talabheim is closed because of the plague. Fearing that their way into Talabheim is barred they decide to carry on to the Municipal office to get some answers.

When they arrive at the Municipal office they find it closed and borded up. Johann sees movement inside so tells them to show themselves. Several men holding crossbows appear through a hatch on the roof. Torsten holds up the letter given to them by Howenlow and demands to be given his pass and paid his wages. A clerk pushes past the men with crossbows and throws down three purses containing the eight gold crowns owed to each adventurer. He then reads them a parchment stating that they have been granted entry into Talabheim.

Not knowing if they will actually be able to get into Talabheim the trio head to the Wizards Way to see if there is any way through. When they arrive, guards block their path and tell them that nobody is allowed in or out of Talabheim. Feeling cheated and at a loss for what to do next, they head to Skullys to see if he can help.

After a short discussion with Skully, he agrees to look into finding an alternative way into Talabheim for them. He tells them that the gangs in Talabheim are still smuggling goods in and out of the city so there must be a way in. They head back to the Bald Badger for the night. Johann asks Heinz if he can recommend a healer to take a look at Serion and Torsten as their coughs are lingering. Heinz tells them to try an apothecary named Widdenhoff near the Wizards Way. The adventurers decide to head straight there as they have nothing else to do for the rest of the day.

It does not take long for the trio to find the apothecaries house. They knock on the front door but there is no answer. Serion moves around the side of the house but can see nothing through the groundfloor windows. Torsten goes to the back of the house and finds a high wall surrounding the back yard. He pulls himself over the wall but sees nobody at the back of the house. Johann follows Torsten and tries the back door. Finding the door locked, he tries to pick it but fails. Johann moves to one side and Torsten slams his shoulder against the wooden door. The lock gives way and Torsten enters the back of the house.

Meanwhile, Serion has returned to the front of the house and is scanning the street for anything suspicious.

Torsten moves quickly through the house and opens the front door to let Serion in. Johann enters behind Torsten and leaves the house through the front door to stand guard whilst the other two search for Widdenhoff.

Serion enters a room to the right of the hallway and finds a body on the floor with its throat slit. Serion calls Johann in and the pair of them discover strange footprints in spilt flour on the floor. The footprints look like they were made by a large hunting dog with long claws and trail off towards the hallway.

Meanwhile Torsten heads left from the hallway into a study. He sees a body slumped over a desk. He is about to take a closer look when all three of the adventurers hear a thud upstairs. Torsten pulls out his mace and takes the lead whilst Johann draws a dagger and Serion prepares his bow. They head cautiously up the stairs. Torsten and Johann enter a room on the landing whilst Serion stands guard at the top of the stairs. As the pair enter the room something brown and furry darts from under a bed towards Torsten. Startled he raises his mace to end the creatures life, realising just in time that it is only a cat. Johann moves over to a wardrobe and careful opens the door with his dagger. As the door swings open, something heavy and soft falls onto him. Torsten laughs and removes the large coat that has fallen from the wardrobe from Johann.

From another room on the landing a black cloaked humanoid bursts from the darkness, dodges past Serion and leaps through a window before he even has time to react. Torsten runs to the broken window but the figure is already gone. Torsten cautiously enters the room the figure burst from. He finds that it is a herb room, Johann makes a brief search of the contents but finds nothing of interest.

Finding nothing else of interest upstairs they head back down to the study. Serion looks more closely at the body slumped over the desk and finds a throwing star in its back. He carefully removes the throwing star, finding on closer inspection that it has been poisoned. Lifting the slumped body they find he was probably Widdenhoff. He was reading about a disease called the Pale Shivers when he was killed...