Decaying Lands 13: The Tower of Bremmlecht 02 - A Secret!

PCs Present & Played:

Barthelm Schade, Specialist 4 (James)
Caleb, Fighter 2 [farmer kit]
  Suzie, a stubborn but loyal mule
Claus Drexol, Magic-User 4 (Vegas)
  Wiebke Bott, linklady from Bremmlecht
  Sandra Schöll, guard from Bremmlecht
Jewel, Really Good Dog 2 (Rudy)
  Buddy, ratter dog
  Fuckhead / Shado, grizzled mongrel
  Wimpy / Cpt. Foofamaloo, escaped housedog
Tenkos, Cleric 1 [plague doctor kit]
Viggo Marklund, Specialist 2 [bounty hunter kit]

---

We started the session back in the room with the muddy bloody rugs, blood trail towards the last closed door, and elaborate inlaid wood chair covered in shit. Jewel's player was back in the game after leaving early last time so we got a fair bit of dog-nosed investigation of the chair. Jewel was able to smell some things but didn't come up with much that was actionable for the rest of the party.

Tower level 01. Shit chair in the top left.

Caleb then tried to grab the chair and rock it around. The sides of the chair went all the way down to the floor, so he was looking for some way to move it or uncover a hidden trapdoor. He found the chair to be securely attached to the floor but discovered an angled slot hidden in the back, between the chair and the wall.

I made a drawing in roll20 to show my players the general setup (my lines are in black). They turned the wall into a dick. I've been there so I can't complain (not that I would).

This is what happens when players can draw things.

Caleb tried to fit his mailed hand inside but couldn't quite get it all the way in, just a bit too big. He didn't want to remove the mail, however, afraid that he would lose his hand as well. Viggo tried next, heedless of any danger, and found that the slot fit his hand like a glove. The inside was smooth as silk and the slot split into five smaller indentations, perfectly sized for each of the bounty hunter's fingers. They did not observe anything else to happen, so they started to speculate.

"Oh your dick! Put that in!"
"Yeah, put your dick in there, it's so silky."
"Do you have some kind of hydra dick?"

So I guess I need to write about something with a hydra dick now? Spoilers for my players, this chair was not made for a hydra-dicked being.

The next thing they tried was ripping the hands off the skeleton from the kitchen and putting them into the slot. The skeleton hand also fit perfectly into the slot, similar to Viggo's. Somebody asked Jewel if the chair was bad, and she nodded. Claus, contrary to his prior extreme caution, put his own hand inside the slot in the back of the chair. He also found the inside of the slot to fit perfectly around his hand, as though it were made for it, and it did feel incredibly silky smooth. Unlike Viggo, Claus also felt a tingling in his hand that lasted for several moments after removing his hand from the slot.

At this point, Barthelm cautioned against further investigation of the chair. "We can only push this so far, eventually somebody goes back for the rope if you know what I mean."

They followed the blood trail to the last door and into a stairwell, discovering another robed skeleton in the process. This one had a dagger, but little else, so they sent Fuckhead up the stairs to check before following up. The non-dog party members heard a bunch of barking between the canine people and Jewel indicated with a nod for others to ascend. They eventually all made their way up the stairs and found another skeleton. This one, however, was armed with a sword, shield, and chainmail. They were excited about the chainmail until they flipped the skeleton over and found the chain burst apart in the front.

They examined the shield and the armor, looking for some kind of indication of whose soldier this was. The shield had was emblazoned with the mark of the local lord of Bremmlecht. Oh, what's their name? Well I didn't make a name for them yet, but-

"It's Lord TAYLOR."

Everyone is getting naming privileges revoked.

Yeah okay, a soldier of Lord Taylor. Sure.

They scrounged a few more scraps of silver coins from this corpse and Barthelm leaned into the door, listening. He heard the whistle of a breeze but little else. He gently eased open the door on the landing, ignoring the stairs up for now and went into the darkened room. Seeing an open window with no curtain, Barthelm quickly assessed the room, grabbed a table near the window, and put it on end to block the opening.

More light discipline! This party seems to have it pretty together.

They brought in Weibke and her torch to examine the room. Barthelm (I think) was rocking a torch by now too for extra coverage. There were a few crates that they quickly ransacked. In the first, Claus found an abundance of very high quality black (x10 value) and colored (x15 value) inks. In the second, he found a number of plain wooden cases. Inside each case was what looked like a syringe with finger holes along the length of it.

"What could it be," they wondered?

They picked another door to go through. This time Jewel told the fancy-pants housedog, Wimpy, to go through. This dog actually had a name that people gave it ("Captain Foofamaloo") but Jewel refused to use it. Wimpy whimpered a bit but passed a morale check and went in through the door before whimpering some more and running back out. Inside a small side room they found a skeleton slumped against the wall with a dozen crossbow bolts in and around it. Barthelm quickly rushed in and stuffed the bedroll in the open window (more light discipline!), revealing a small coin pouch and a scrap of paper.

"Josef, you are a true servant to the Church. Thank you for you service. We will come for you shortly, remain strong."

The crossbow bolts and the mention of the Church must have made something click in Viggo's head because he started to talk about how incredibly dangerous everything could be in the tower. His previous experience was with more mundane challenges but now that they were messing with magical detritus he realized that he should be more cautious. Barthelm agreed, said they all needed to watch themselves (you don't get to level 4 in this game without being careful).

Jewel sent the ratter into the next room, taking turns with doggerlings. Buddy the ratter was businesslike and professional, responded with a "Yes boss" and a quick report of the room. Everyone else filed in, found a rack with leather straps on it, some shelves, and a crate with some more ink and syringe-like objects from before. They reasoned that the straps were to hold people down onto the table for some kind of strange torture.

They tried to press on into the next room with Caleb taking the lead (no dogs this time!) but the door had some resistance behind it. Caleb, beefy man that he is, heaved against it and pushed three more mailed skeletons out of the way. Nothing moved, so they took a quick survey of the room. There quickly saw three bedrolls and three skeletons but also an open window. Caleb quickly shoved the bedroll in the corner into the window to block their torchlight and, in doing so, uncovered a arced groove worn into the floor. He investigated further, found a hairline gap in the wall and tried to wedge a sword and a thieves' pick in their but to little effect.

Leaving the crack for now, they tossed the rest of the room. They didn't get much from the skeletons, maybe a few silvers from the mailed soldiers of Lord Taylor, but then they came to the two footlockers. One was in the north side of the room, next to two of the skeletons and a pair of bedrolls. The other was as far away from that as possible, on the side of the room near the other skeleton, the groove, and the crack in the wall. They went after the top footlocker first. Barthelm very carefully looked at it without touching, then poked it and prodded it before finally picking it up and examining the catches and gaps. He spotted a small needle inside of the locking mechanism and was able to warn Viggo so that he could deftly avoid it by springing it before picking the lock.

Inside the footlocker they found several matched sets of robes, some sundry personal effects, and a pair of spellbooks at the bottom. Claus was pumped! He would have to take some time to read the spells with magic but this is probably the least of what he was hoping to find in here. They found a few sheets of papers with different geoemetric designs and drawings on them inside as well. They tapped the bottom looking for a hollow compartment but came up with nothing.

The bottom footlocker didn't seem to have any needle or other obvious trap. It was still locked however, and this time it was Viggo who popped it open.  As soon as he began to lift the lid an ear-piercing shriek began to emit from inside. He quickly snapped the lid shut, hoping that no sound had escaped the tower, and thought about what to do. They talked about the possibility of bringing the chest elsewhere but they really wanted to open it now, so they took it into the central room to consider their options. They tossed the bedrolls in the bottom left room again and found a key but it didn't go into the lock.

Tower level 02. That's Caleb's Suzie to the right.

Impatience getting the better of the group, they told the doggerlings to leave the room and opened the chest again, enduring the sound to search the contents. Inside were some more robes, some silver, and another spellbook. Claus at this point might be content just to leave, although maybe I'm underestimating his greed. He only knows one second level spell still because they've never stopped anywhere long enough to They found more drawings too, although fewer than the other footlocker. This time their investigations into bottom of the chest paid off. Viggo (I think?) was tracing the bottom of the locker with a knife, poking and prodding. Imagine something like the knife game, but the bottom of the chest. He hit paydirt when the knife cut through a small square of fabric into a small switch which, when depressed, released a catch. In the hollow compartment, they found a brass door handle.

This picture is perfect minus the screw holes.

They quickly closed the chest and ran back into the room with the groove on the floor. A few moments of sliding the handle around the wall near the crack and boom, the handle was fixed in place. The door was heavy, scraping the ground as it opened, but when it was open they had revealed a previously unknown portion of the tower.

Annnd end session.

Sidebar: I've got a prep post drafted with how I put this together including (especially important) props for the cartographer of the map but I don't want to post it until my group has explored more. I will say that I got the map from Eneko Menica's feed and that he's a boss cartographer. I guess if my players really want to go hunting then whatever, it's their own fun they'd be spoiling!

Decaying Lands 12: The Tower of Bremmlecht 01 - Approach

PCs Present & Played:

Caleb, Fighter 2 [farmer kit]
  Suzie, a stubborn but loyal mule
Claus Drexol, Magic-User 4 (Vegas)
  Wiebke Bott, linklady from Bremmlecht
  Sandra Schöll, guard from Bremmlecht
Jewel, Really Good Dog 2 (Rudy)
  Buddy, ratter dog
  Fuckhead / Shado, grizzled mongrel
  Wimpy / Cpt. Foofamaloo, escaped housedog
Tenkos, Cleric 1 [plague doctor kit]
Viggo Marklund, Specialist 2 [bounty hunter kit]

---

The party left off having buried Jeremiah the blacksmith in a shallow grave in the woods near Hommlet. Barthelm decided (due to player real-life obligations) to stay behind and coordinate the construction of the promised wall and windmill while everyone else beat feet for Bremmlecht and its wizard tower. This marked the first time that their adventures were not solely driven by a desire to save Polde the farmer.

They arrived in Bremmlecht after a week of mostly uneventful travel. Just prior to entering the city proper they encountered a merchant on his way out. Viggo decided to flag down the man, looking to replenish the contents of his hip flask. He settled on some hard liquor from the swamplands and some fine Ghallian wine for his foreign friend Tenkos. The merchant, Scarus, also shared a rumor from excited travelers warning about murderous brigands back south before taking his leave to travel on.

Sidebar: The merchant was just another random encounter entry, but Viggo's player went all in on interacting him and it became a fun diversion and another fun NPC. I really appreciate how much my players tend to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

Upon entering the city, Jewel immediately started scouting about for some dog rumors. This time I was prepared! Thank you very much to Scrap Princess for both the idea of crowdsourcing the rumors and this particular rumor itself.

ALSO go and vote for her and Patrick and Veins of the Earth for all the things.

Anyway, Jewel's doggy rumor was:

"Eating catshit means you can tell when a human is trying to trick you with food."

I think Rudy (Jewel's player) was somewhat less than thrilled about new dog-focused rumors. I was pumped because I had something to account for this new aspect to my game but then Jewel wanted to get some doggy hirelings. Confounded again! Rudy is slowly but surely pushing me into being a better referee. Thanks amigo.

Anyway, this request meshed very nicely with Claus's pronouncement upon entering the town: "If we're going to go into this tower, then now is a time for... hirelings!"

Sidebar: I was really pumped to have some hirelings, especially dog ones. This is the first time that the party has gone after extra help.

So Jewel wanted to recruit three doggerlings, promised a comfortable bed and plenty of food. We figured that was more than sufficient to attract some potential recruits. The only specific kind of dog she was looking for was a small, ratter type, so we rolled for that first. Next she came across a grisly mongrel who preferred payment of the physical kind (Jewel declined and repeated her food and shelter offer). Last was a soft, well-groomed, pampered looking dog. He had escaped from his owner, bored of the easy life,and wanted adventure. Jewel was able to convince all of them (roll roll roll!) and our first doggy hireling first was so far a complete success.

The human party members, especially Viggo, were coming fused by the sudden appearance of three strange looking dogs but Jewel told them to go over and lick hands and wag tails prompting Claus to praise her initiative in getting help and a big round of meat for all.

After that, they bee-lined straight for the neighborhood surrounding the abandoned tower, looking for an inn as a base of operations. They found The Bird's Cup, a reputable looking inn with a stable for their horses and place for their wagon. Jewel and her new posse stayed in the stables, Caleb stayed with them (he and Jewel are "best friends" per the class), and everyone else went inside. They had during the breakfast rush and discovered that this particular inn's specialty was eggs. There were tons of dishes with chicken eggs at the heart but also some plates coming out with pheasant eggs, quail eggs, and even Ghallian hen eggs.

Of course the real special, offered up to the table, was eagle eggs direct from the Dwarfgrave mountains! The proprietor's daughter had fetched them at great personal danger to herself. This was enough to draw in Claus, who had been ready to save some money on regular chicken eggs but now wanted to "taste the danger." While bonding over danger eggs, Claus told the waiter that they were on an architectural research mission from the university in Universitätsstadt (great name Vegas, thanks again). Then he gave the lad 15 sp to calm his fears and then another 15 sp to convince him that they certainly had all of the proper approvals from the lord and the church; that there was no need to mention this to anyone else; and that the party would very much like for this waiter to find some friends who'd like some extra money. The waiter agreed and said he's have something by dinner.

They passed some time, waiting for nightfall. Viggo canvassed the city with a crude sketch of his mark, Einrich Fassbinder, but had no luck. Claus and Caleb, however, passed the time in a more fruitful and exciting manner.

Claus had done some research and found that there were at least 36 possible solutions to the problem of Caleb's dead little boy! The least complicated one should only cost about 40,000 sp and have a "moderately okay possibility of success." The notes and tomes that Claus showed the giant farmer were scratches, nearly gibberish, but the magic user's voice carried hope and encouragement.

Caleb: "Really? I'll do anything to make my little boy come back!'
Claus:" Do you have any pieces of him left?"
Caleb: "Yes actually, I have a lock of his hair, is this enough?"

Claus made some notes, calculated costs, and then made some drawings. There was a progression apparent of a tiny piece of flesh becoming a tiny humanoid, then full grown humanoid, crazy illustration around its head, then little cartoon drawing of Caleb and a little boy. On the next page was someone who looked like Caleb with a goatee and a little boy, then a picture of goatee Caleb looking confused and the little boy is gone.

Claus narrated the progression, explaining the theory of the multiverse accepted within the academic establishment (probably heretical in the Church). The plan is to clone Caleb's little boy from his flesh to create a vessel and then find another, overlapping universe where the little guy never died. Take the vessel, take the essence from this other-little boy and "boop!" bring him into the vessel. He'd be exactly (for all intents and purposes" like Caleb's little boy, with memories of him to boot and no trauma! Start saving now!

Not all of the rest of the party took to this idea with the same fervor as Caleb, however.

Tenkos: "All the pain you're feeling now will happen to someone else in another world"
Claus:  "I.. um... hrm. Great thing is that he's already felt this pain, so maybe there will be some pain and confusion in another world but in the grand balance of things there's no change at all!"

Jewel has an amazingly insightful point about collapsing the multiverse in an infinite sequence of Clauses stealing other little boys...

But unfortunately she's a dog! Everyone just think she agrees when she starts barkety-barking. "Don't worry girl, we'll get him back! I miss him too." Caleb said we'll go and dig up the body if we need it! Claus clarified that we're not raising up the body, so it's not necromancy! Caleb didn't care though, necromancy included, just wants his little boy back. This farmer will go to any lengths to get back that little guy!

Sidebar: At first I thought this was just a really clever idea that Claus' player came up with, really getting into it! Then he explained to me that it's basically a description of the clone spell, which was even more awesome. That meant that Vegas took the time to go through spells and try to find something outside of the game, which is really lovely.

After dinner, the proprietor of The Bird's Cup offered some delightful complimentary custards to the group. The waiter brought them out but there were two women tagging along behind him. He introduced Wiebke Bott and Sandra Scholl then took his leave. Wiebke was willing to work as a linklady and Sandra as a guard. They haggled a bit, Claus upgraded Wiebke's pay so she would be willing to haul goods too, and they made plans to go out around midnight. The late departure was due to the fact that the "Church was explicit that we were not to alert the townspeople of any possible thing to be worried about while working in the daylight."

They approached the tower at midnight with a bare crescent of a moon, winding their way up the sloped path to the first obstacle. The Church had barricaded an early archway up the path with concentric diamonds made out of holy woods, restricting entry.

[picture of the tower, closeup of the wood]

Jewel and Buddy, the ratter that she recruited, squeezed their way through a corner and continued up the path. They came to the main tower door, crossed with chains and sealed with locks, but didn't see any tracks besides their own. They went back down to the rest of the party and Jewel's player had to leave the session a bit early so from here out there's no extra doggy angle.

After debating what they can do with the wooden planks Caleb got Weibke to help him tear it down "gently"with the intent to replace the wood once they are done exploring. They were mostly successful, only slightly damaging some of the innermost diamond of jobi wood in the process.

The three locks on the door were daunting (Barthelm has more Tinkering, I think), but Viggo had just learned some (2 in 6) and had a go at it. Shockingly, he rolled all 1s and popped open the large padlocks quite easily, "quietly stunned that it worked that well." Everyone else was incredibly impressed by Viggo's supernaturally smooth skill.

They sent in Fuckhead (he'd been trying to hump Jewel all session) to check out the entryway. He pissed on the door, then went inside, where they could hear him pissing on the floor. They got inside, had a look around in the shadows, and then closed the door before lighting the torch.

Light discipline! I was very impressed.

They saw some bars without much space, no doors, and some discolorations behind them. They tapped on the floors looking for hollows and saw that the next door was smashed, barely on the hinges, with a broken knob.

They opened the door and they went into the next room. The main feature were two stone statues, one of the Church's god Gesu, and another of a large cowled figure. They spent a fair amount of time investigating the cowled statue. It was taller even than Caleb, large as he is, and was so finely sculpted that it looked more like fabric than stone. The cowl hid an optical illusion; it appeared solid but in reality was completely hollow inside! Claus convinced Wiebke to put her hand inside but nothing was observed to happen. They looked for a maker's mark but could find nothing. Claus tried to pull the coat rack off the wall as well, looking for secrets, but it turned out to be a normal coat rack.

There was only one other door out of this room and everyone was terrified of it except for Viggo; he quietly but confidently opened the door into the next, larger area of the tower. They found a bunch of spoiled food and a large barrel of lamp oil ("Ooh, i bet that's worth some money!"). The most noticeable piece was a large, ornate chair on a dais, covered in shit. Literal shit, like someone went and specifically pooped on the chair. Fuckhead, despite his bluster, refused to go up on the dais with the chair. It was about this time that the party became more convinced that the place was assaulted SWAT style.

Leaving the chair for now they went through a door on the inner wall and into what appeared to be a kitchen. There was some more spoiled food but the main point of interest was a skeleton slumped over and into an empty wash basin. "I check its pockets!" Claus immediately rifled through the robes and boots of the skeleton to no effect. Caleb then checked the skeleton in more detail, looking for signs of trauma to the bones. He discovered that the tips of the finger bones were chipped and worn down. Disturbed, the farmer examined the wash basin in more detail and found a slight catch. He grasped and pulled, opening a compartment along the top of the basin.

Inside was an intricately detailed box made out of a dark wood that they'd only seen before inlaid on the dais chair from the other room. The reader might recognize it as ebony, but the party knows nothing of that.

What's in that box?

Everyone was terrified to reach in and touch the box, let alone open it, except for Viggo. The bounty hunter strode over, grabbed the box, and popped it open. There was a click, and the box opened to reveal the most ornate and gorgeous pistol that any of them had ever seen. It seemed be to functional as well, with one shot loaded and five in reserve. The party reasoned that the skeleton must have known the pistol was there and that they were scraping for the catch to get the pistol out and save themselves.

Sidebar: Did not take advantage enough of environmental rolls or check Weibke's torch for duration. Sloppy. This sloppyness continues on into the next session, too. Disappointed.

Decaying Lands 11: Polde's Homecoming

PCs Present & Played:

Barthelm Schade, Specialist 4 (James)
Caleb, Fighter 1 [farmer kit]
  Suzie, a stubborn but loyal mule
Claus Drexol, Magic-User 3 (Vegas)
Jewel, Really Good Dog 1 (Rudy)
Tenkos, Cleric 1 [plague doctor kit]
Viggo Marklund, Specialist 2 [bounty hunter kit]

---

I'd start this off with a spoiler warning about The Trail of Stone and Sorrow but this is so far off the end of that adventure that it's not even relevant anymore. Take this as one possible, absurd, end-game and then go buy it so you can run it for your players or give it to your referee to run because this is where you can take it.

---

This session picked up right where the last one left off, with Jeremiah the blacksmith on the front porch of Polde's house yelling at him. Barthelm immediately inserted himself and got up in Jeremiah's face right back, ended up looking like a Wolverine/Sabertooth matchup size-wise, except Barthelm is probably much dirtier and smellier than Wolverine.

After a few moments Polde's son Anton came running out along with his wife, Ivana. Jeremiah initially caught the boy from running to his father but backed down when Barthelm subtly (or not) threatened him. Claus brought the three Kosovels inside their farmhouse to get an explanation and shield Anton from the potential violence that was simmering. Jeremiah backed down, however, and the blacksmith retreated from the farmhouse in the direction of the town center with an "I'll get you!" look.

The folks remaining outside of the Kosovel house immediately started preparing for battle. Barthelm posted up on the roof after working with his comrades to place their bear traps just off the road on the town side of the house. Bear traps are standard operating procedure for them at this point but they did at least spare a thought for keeping Anton away from them. Jewel meanwhile went exploring about the farm, finding some cats in the barn! She immediately went into righteous slayer mode and brutally ripped the throat out of the first feline. The second managed to escape up the ladder to the top of the barn leaving Jewel to wait underneath, barking.

Inside the house, Claus caught Ivana's hint to have Anton show Polde around the recently fixed up farm and introduce his farther to their new animals. When the rest of her family had left, Ivana explained that Polde's disappearance coupled with the damage to the farm fences and loss of so many animals left her without many options. She couldn't afford to replace the livestock and couldn't work the farm by herself. Jeremiah swept in, sold off the stone statues, and raided Dr. Brenner's house. He claimed to have killed Brenner for doing dark magic and soon had enough money and influence to control much of the town. His influence got the town to stop shunning Ivana and Anton and his money got her farm back into working order. "It was either that or let my son starve."

At this point Claus brought Ivana back outside at the sound of a commotion. During Anton's guided tour of the farm renovations with his dad they came upon Jewel, barking over the barely recognizable corpse of Twinkle Kitty, one of the farm cats. Jewel followed the sobbing boy back to the front of the house, tail wagging the whole way. Caleb tried to scold her but couldn't stay mad at such a sweet face. To distract the boy instead, Caleb knelt Anton down and stood over him in his full plate and knighted him "Sir Anton of Farmhouse" with his greatsword. "Now ride my steed!" Anton was now distracted enough by his new title and riding on Suzie that the rest of the folks could focus how to attack the problem at hand.

Anton was excited!

There was a lot of back and forth planning and discussing going on at this point. Claus initially just wanted to leave, he even tried to convince Ivana that they should leave town and start somewhere new. When that didn't land, he was pretty nonchalant about "Well let's just go kill him!" which didn't exactly help with the "wizards are awful people" stereotype. Barthlem's plan is to tell the townsfolk that he was the one who actually killed Dr. Brenner (true) because "BAD wizards deserve to die" (emphasis his). Caleb meanwhile shared with Anton that he was looking for a wizard to "bring his boy back" which only confused the little guy more ("So wizards can do good things too?").

Anton was confused.

The group eventually settled on a preemptive strike. They would go into town, in force, and try to interrupt whatever Jeremiah was trying to put together. They wanted to go in, claim the credit for killing Brenner, and pass off Caleb as a knight from the city, which they had already kind of done with Anton. Tenkos demonstrated a bear trap for Anton too, which he loves, and then they told him that he got to announce "Sir Caleb of Teutonitopia!"

Anton was ecstatic.

Before leaving, they realized that Jewel was missing. Where'd that rascal get off to? Oh no, she went in and ate all the breakfast off the table and got blood everywhere. Oh that Jewel!

Their Plab B was 100% just to murder Jeremiah. I'm not sure if it was "murder and run away" or "murder and lie" or maybe "murder discreetly and cover up" because they never got that far.

They arrived at the town center to find a group of a dozen or so rowdy townsfolk clustered around the newly renovated smithy (with attached tavern). Mostly they were armed with pitchforks and clubs, although there was at least one sword in the group. Anton announced "Sir Caleb of Teutonitopia, from the capital city!" and Barthelm started to try and reason with the crowd by saying stuff like "Good people, they kill evil wizards and let bygones be bygones, they don't hold it over your head!" There was a lot of talk back, some yelling, and Barthelm accusing Jeremiah of being a bad guy. One of Jeremiah's apprentices, Tobias, was there and toeing the party line in support of his master. When things weren't going as well as Barthelm would have liked, and seeing Jeremiah approaching from across the town, Barthelm went all in: "I'll pay a gold piece to everyone that stands with us!" Tobias was instantly sold. He also promised to build upgrade their mill to a windmill and build a wall around the town.

Sidebar: LotFP uses a silver standard and on top of that 1 gp = 50 sp, so this is a fair amount of money.

Jeremiah immediately launched into accusations against Polde, calling him some kind of devil spawn creature. Polde countered by calling out specific people in the crowd with memories. Barthelm also claimed that Jeremiah was in league with evil magic users. Tobias subtly threw up three fingers, Barthelm nodded, and then Tobias launched into a tirade about how he saw some shady meetings but never wanted to say anything because he was scared of Jeremiah working magic.

At this point, sensing the changing tide, Jeremiah pulled out a longsword. Caleb immediately responded by tackling him to the ground, and Barthelm punched him for good measure. Caleb claimed to have been sent by King Heinrich IV himself to arrest Jeremiah for being in league with dark magics! They bound his arms, everyone went into the bar which formerly belonged to Jeremiah but now belonged to Tobias.

They took Jermiah down the road a bit, then into the woods. They dug a shallow grave, tortured him a little bit (Jewel bit off one of his fingers!) and then murdered the shit out of him. He really pleaded to be let go, but no dice. Before his death, he did divulge that he sold all the stuff he got from Dr. Brenner's house to two hooded and masked men named Manfred and Perminio. He had previously done business with them before by selling them blacked out armor, and they seemed very scary.

They went back to the smithy, cased it out and aggressively interviewed Tobias a bit but didn't get much more. They did find some hidden money, which they gave to Tobias to distribute to the townsfolk (more Barthelm promises) as well as an eight inch, cold iron key covered in hieroglyphs.

After they killed Jeremiah we all said something like "wow now you guys really are murder-hobos, it's your first murder." After the fact the rationale for murdering Jeremiah boiled down to "he was mean to a couple of us once and he wanted to get with Polde's wife." Totally justified.

I realized later when talking to Caleb's player that Barthelm has personally murdered a bunch of people already! Even directly the session before, murdering prisoners! I don't know what we were thinking.