Session Report: If Looks Could Kill II / Mistaken Identity I
Image: Melchior Lorck, Basilisk, 1548, etching.
This report picks up where my last one left off. We are playing WFRP 4e, straggling into The Enemy Within proper by a roundabout route. Be forewarned of spoilers for Mistaken Identity or, as its called now, Enemy In Shadows. I look forward to them being far enough in that I can write up my remix. In the meantime, enjoy the blow-by-blow.
Searching the Swamp
We return to the party at the forlorn construction site on the edge of the Grausee.
- Cucino, a Tilean wrecker with a penchant for wine, has taken the "Criminal" trait and is now immediately recognizable as scum and villainy.
- Sebastien, an apprentice wizard, has finally learned his first spell - Dart!
The party set off in hot pursuit of Thulgrim, the dwarf engineer who had stolen a paychest as well as the barge they were planning to sleep on, choosing to risk venturing into the deep part of the bog in the middle of the night rather than let their quarry escape. Between Cucino's navigation skill and Sebastien's night vision, they were able to make good time and soon came upon the wreck of the Grey Mule, seemingly thrown bodily onto the rocks.
A quick survey of the wreckage revealed that many three-toed foot prints as well as a deeply gouged trail of someone dragging a chest through the mud. Hurrying along as fast as stealth would allow, they came upon Thulgrim, clutching the branches of an old weeping willow as something lurked below. Six-legged, scarred, rheumy-eyed, and hungry, an ancient looking basilisk prowled around snapping at his feet.
Naturally, Sebastien did what anyone good wizard would do. He lined up a dart spell and promptly began bleeding from his mouth and nose as he miscast it. Refocusing, he hurled a magical dart and smote Thulgrim up in the tree, who wailed in confusion and pain before falling to the ground.
The attack was enough to break the party's concealment, so the basilisk surged towards them. A messy melee ensued with Thulgrim firing off bolts as Sebastien and Cucino clambering up into the tree, narrowly avoiding being clobbered to death. Thulgrim tried to hoof it off into the bog only to be crushed under the basilisk's weight. The party engineered a clever stratagem of hoisting the paychest into the air with a rope and then dropping it on the basilisk's head until the beast decided they weren't worth the effort and ran off into the swamp.
Once the coast was clear, the party recovered the paychest, Thulgrim's crossbow (which neither could use), and a set of fine dwarven tools. They returned to their employer Johanne Teugen, who unceremoniously had them break open the paychest to issue their pay - 10 crowns for the dwarf's death plus the 10 shillings that Rutger had offered them to investigate the site. She bid them rest up and then asked them to trek with her and the Kislevite workmen back to Ubersreik to plan their next moves.
On The Road
The party weathered another restless night in the swamp, intentionally trying to experience the nightmare so they could take notes. This time they were able to lucid dream there way to the standing stones and see more of the carvings from years past - scenes of a great battle, of female tailed figured and six legged basilisks, and a great eye radiating energy over the land.
The next day the party made an uneventful trek to Ubersreik where they cleaned up and resupplied. There was no sign of Rutger Reuter or three Grauseer goons they had tied up the night before. In Ubersreik, Cucino made friends with a fellow expat, Phillipe Descartes, a Bretonnian card sharp. The next morning, Johanne offered the party another job: escort her via coach back to her home, Bogenhafen, and help explain to her brothers that the textile mill venture's failure was out of her hands. The party agreed and boarded a Four Seasons coach headed north on a two day journey.
It turned out Philippe Descartes was joining their coach, headed to something called the Schaffenfest - a county fair held annually in Bogenhafen. They spent most of the bumpy rider in amicable silence minus Philippe failing to con Cucino.
In early afternoon, the drivers stopped as they saw a figure in the road stooped over a dead horse. One of the drivers brandished a musket and told the fellow to step aside to let them pass, but he just approached. On closer inspection, he seemed to be rotting and greenish with long clawed fingers.
The clawed figure proved to be one of a group of mutant brigands, just having attacked an earlier coach. I honestly don't recall the exact details, but the party fought a quick battle with the help of Philippe and mopped up the brigands who were already wounded from their previous ambush. When the dust settled they discovered the fate of the previous coach, crashed behind a hill with its occupants arrayed in neat, pre-looted rows.
A quick survey of the scene revealed a startling truth - one of the victims was a man who looked exactly identical to Cucino! If it weren't for his clean cut haircut and handlebar mustache, they could have been twins. Going through his pockets, Sebastien found two documents - a notarized document identifying the man as Kaspar Aloysius Lieberung and a letter inviting him to come to a law office in Bogenhafen to receive his inheritance - 20,000 gold crowns and the estate of a small baronet!
GM Notes
So If Looks Could Kill comes to an end. I wasn't expecting the party to make such a beeline for Thulgrim, especially fatigued and with the dangers of the swamp so telegraphed. I figured he'd make it to the village of Grausee and then we'd get a sort of overland chase headed north. So it goes.
I had juiced the basilisk at the end of If Looks Could Kill. The original has a tiny amount of wounds having just fought the Grausee goons and a frankly pathetic Weapons Skill and Ballistics Skill. I know the adventure is intended as an intro (and in the 4e's first real new string of adventures, to boot), but I don't like introducing a scary monster and then no-selling the encounter by making it a scary monster that's old and weak actually. It feels a bit like the inverse of giving the players a false lead - you only get to do that so much before players never trust your leads again.
The one cool thing big monsters do in WFRP 4e is come with a set of almost pre-programmed actions. With the way Advantage works in the game, they only accumulate it when they score a hit or use what an OSR-head would identify as a maneuver (for the most part). Most monster abilities also seem to say "spend all your advantage to do this special attack under these circumstances." The result is a natural ebb and flow where monsters spend some turns thrashing around or just stalking characters intimidatingly to accrue Advantage, then burn it on a big attack. Savvy players can get out of the way, or even better, take actions to bleed their Advantage and avoid the big swing. I think a slightly less trinkety version of this would go great in other systems.
Johanne is fixing to become a long term patron for the party. I'm not entirely sure if that's because the party likes her or I just enjoy roleplaying her, but for the moment she's an expedient hook into Enemy Within. Once the party gets in the general vicinity of the module I can ditch the scene-by-scene linear layout of the original text and start working with it as a set of topographies, factions, and timelines that intersect with the players movements.
I think that the Mistaken Identity hook - one of the players looking exactly like a body found on the side of the road - plays way better than it reads. I always think its going to be cheesy or groan inducing, but players never fail to be excited (or at least good sports!) The players are already happily scheming about how to get an illiterate Tilean wrecker to shape up to present as a nobleman from Ubersreik...