1×06: The Schaffenfest

• We open with a flashback, to the night of the murder of the witch hunter. Just as it happens, Enfys recognizes his brother, Brynmore, and his brother’s wizardly mentor, Etelka Herzen. He observes his brother cast a powerful spell of Panic that causes huge numbers of the crowd to flee in all directions. Enfys attempts to pursue his brother who goes in the opposite direction that Magos Herzen does, but loses Brynmore in the crowd.
• The new Watch mostly have the 6th day off. Jörg intends to visit his parents’ home but instead ends up getting roped into helping Coppertong repair the Shallyan Mercyhouse. Christoph asks a couple of magic-based questions of Enfys and shows him the plain copper ring, then says a little too much which causes Master Loom to begin suspecting that his young friend may have been involved in the death of the witch hunter; Enfys then spends some time trying to find his brother again while Christoph tries to track down “Sybille” only to discover that she’s long gone. Sören spends the day wandering around town, feeling out the local orphans with an eye toward recruiting them later.
• Word reaches them all late in the day: another troop of witch hunters and their entourages have arrived.
• The following day, they are assigned to day gate guard, which is quite busy; of course, Sergeant Klumpenklug, their ostensible superior, is nowhere to be found. Rumours about the witch hunter activity abound: a ritual has been conducted over the slain man’s body and he burst into green flames or sat up and spoke the Name of his murderer or stood up, dusted himself off, and joined the manhunt or … the variations are endless. Afterward, Enfys mentions his suspicions about Christoph to Sören, and the two recall how frightened Christoph looked whenever the dead witch hunter is mentioned. They decide to corner him without involving Jörg or Coppertong, and he glumly admits the entire truth about being magically ensorceled. He also reveals to them how he buried that ring (at Enfys’ suggestion) and the bloody thing was in his pocket again the next day.
• The following morning, the Watch are assembled in the main barracks for a rewards ceremony and to their irritation, Sergeant Klumpenklug is presented a medal and some shillings for gallantry, and is credited for all of the things that the newcomers actually did, such as putting out the fire, chasing down footpads, and standing firm during the riots. Afterwards, When Captain Goertrin fails to inspire with a speech, Sergeant Überraschung takes out and issues orders for tomorrow’s Schaffenfest. Jörg will be in charge of the team as she has Klumpenklug assigned to the magistrate’s tent.
• And then, it’s another day of gate guard, which is even busier. More disconcerting for Christoph, though, is the witch hunter who shows up on horseback around noon and just … sits there, studying everyone, whether it is the guards or the people streaming into and out of the gate.
• The Schaffenfest begins the following day, and it is rather hectic, with the PCs patrolling the various hot spots: the wrestling ring where Jörg almost gets suckered into fighting with his cousin; the beer tent that several of them look at longingly while escorting drunks (including Gottri, a drunk Dwarf that Coppertong is vaguely familiar with) to the magistrate’s tent; the archery contest sponsored by the graf himself which implies he is assembling a new company of bowmen … though Christoph recognizes two of the men running it as members of the dead witch hunter’s retinue, so he steers clear; and then Doctor Malthusius’ Zoocopeia which promises to have “strange creatures from all korners of the world! The marvellous, the bizarre, the disgusting!“
• A pair of witch hunters are present, coldly observing the display much to the “doctor’s” dismay, and Enfys demands to see everything first, throwing around his weight as a member of the Watch freely. With enough paying visitors present, Malthusius begins his spiel and has his Dwarf companion bring out the various oddities and creatures. He shows an array of extraordinary creatures, including ‘the Horrendously Hairy Horror of Hochland!’ (a long-haired ape of some sort), ‘the Dastardly One-eyed Dog of Diesdorf!’ (which actually is dog with a single eye in its forehead; this causes the witch hunters to frown harder and exchange a look), ‘the Immeasurable Maw of the Middle Mountains’ (a relatively small Squig), and ‘the Ghastly Three-Legged Goblin of the Grissenwald!’
• When the three-legged goblin is brought out, it abruptly bites the Dwarf’s hand, causing him to let go of its leash, and then makes a break for freedom, vanishing into a small hole in the town wall where an iron grating has rusted away to nothing. As the crowd’s panic subsides, the older witch hunter strides forward and orders the Watch present to clasp this man into irons for trafficking with prohibited creatures.
• Leading the shackled entertainer to the festival courts, they find Chief Magistrate Richter still overseeing the various petty crimes and misdemeanors placed before him. He listens to the witch hunter list the crimes, reviews the evidence brought by the PCs, then agrees to turn Malthusius over to the witch hunters for Questioning. The younger witch hunter asks about the mutant goblin now escaped into the sewers.
• And Sergeant Klumpenklug immediately volunteers Korporal Lange’s team to retrieve it.

GM Notes:

• Recap notes up late. We didn’t play this last Saturday, instead opting to do session zero for Giger’s Old West game.
• I would have considered this session something of a WHIFF if it wasn’t for some really entertaining roleplaying between the characters. Nosh’s decision to have Enfys become suspicious of some of the things that Christoph asked or told him was amusing, but when Ronnke was brought in, it became a lot of fun and the best part was I didn’t have to actually do anything! Why a WHIFF? Because I don’t think I did a very good job with the Schaffenfest.
• The next session will have them entering the sewers and I’m making even more tweaks to that which old school grognards will recognize as such.