1×07: Into the Darkness

• Having been volunteered to venture into the sewers to retrieve the three-legged goblin by Sergeant Klumpenklug, the team are further dismayed when the senior witch hunter declares that his son, Albrecht, will be accompanying them as well.
• They descend into the hideously-smelling sewers and backtrack to where the goblin entered before picking up the trail. It leads them deeper into the system where they discover a smashed in door that opens up into a shrine-like chamber, complete with a summoning circle that has the name ORDO SEPTENARIUS upon it.
• Dropping from the rafters above them, five suspiciously rat-like beastmen attack. A fierce fight ensues with these creatures – Coppertong recognizes them as skaven, though to the Imperials, skaven as a race were exterminated centuries ago – which leaves all but Christoph and Jörg unwounded. Albrecht is the mostly grievously injured and passes out soon after the battle ends. Everyone is quite surprised when these suspiciously rat-like beastmen dissolve into pools of acid upon death.

GM Notes:

• For old school grognards, the changes here are definitely noticeable. In the adventure as written, there’s a lesser daemon there and looking over the PCs stats, I had my doubts that more than one or two would make the Will check against its Terror-3 aura so I wanted to replace it somehow. Further, knowing the skaven play a part later in the campaign, I wanted to introduce them a little earlier and a former player who is more familiar with the Warhammer setting than I am suggested using Clan Moulder who are really into flesh/genetic engineering. Not all skaven are going to die like this, but the PCs don’t know that.
• Having the apprentice witch hunter along as an “escort mission” was something I decided during the week before the game … though I wasn’t quite expecting him to get as jacked up in the fight as he was. Still, he’s still alive (currently) so … I have another opportunity to give him a proper personality. As it stands, he could legally have Enfys executed for casting spells without the presence of Enfys’ master per the apprentice license.
• As I expected, the entire session turned into a combat and, to the Players’ consternation, I was rolling pretty well for a change. We ended up with all but two of the PCs wounded, with Enfys having only 1hp. Which means I get to bring in potential infections and all that jazz due to the environment. Albrecht Kessel, the apprentice witch hunter, is 2 points away from a death check.