Everybodys talking at me.pdf

Everybody’s Talking at Me

A Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Scenario

by Georgios Panagiotidis

"Black Boar", the social hub of

Nordfels. While there is a nice fire

burning and most seats are filled with

drinking peasants, there is an eerie

and foreboding atmosphere about the

place; people talk in hushed voices

and are carefully observing one

another.

This scenario is designed for 4-5

characters in their first career. It can be

played with more and experienced

characters, although you might want to

improve the NPC stats then.

It takes a successful Perception test

(Easy) to assess the scene. Three

distinctive groups are spread out in the

inn. One is near the entrance, one near

the bar and another toward the back of

the Inn. Egill recognises the characters

immediately and greets them loudly

and heartily. He is a dwarf with reddish

close-cropped hair and a glass eye.

Unlike his guests, he speaks with a

loud booming voice and doesn't share

the general mistrust and hostility of the

rest of the peasants. Should the

characters ask him about the

unnerving atmosphere, he will lower

his voice and mention that ever since

Karel was found dead in the Marktplatz

the peasants have become very

mistrusting of each other and split into

three groups.

Those with ties to Hein Kaufmann, the

merchant (sitting near the entrance of

the Inn), those with ties to Steffen

Ostländer, the resident alchemist

(toward the back of the Inn) and those

who've somehow got into their heads

to support Egill (surprisingly situated

near the bar). The fact that Egill tries to

keep out of everything, doesn't seem

to faze them though. None of the

groups trust each other, and all kinds

of rumours and gossip is spreading

among the town folk driving the three

groups further and further away.

Nordfels can placed almost anywhere

in the Empire, except maybe The Moot

and Stirland.

Synopsis:

Last month, the small town of Nordfels

was shaken when Karel, the beloved

Halfling entertainer was found brutally

murdered on the Marktplatz.

Since then the tightly-knit community of

Nordfels has been coming apart.

Distrust, paranoia and malicious

rumour mongering has been ruling the

day. When another crisis rears its ugly

head, the characters – as outsiders -

are chosen to act as arbitrators in the

conflict among the various factions.

During the following few days, the

characters will have to dig through

seedy underbelly of Nordfels and bring

some law & order into ths town. As

tensions rise it will come down to the

characters to save Nordfels from being

torn apart.

So it begins…

The scenario begins with the

characters arriving at Nordfels, a small

town located next to huge rock. One of

the characters' friends (GM's

discretion) knows the owner of the

local Inn, Egill Ketilsson. Egill is a

retired adventurer (aren't they all?),

who now runs the "Black Boar". He'll

be willing to provide the characters

with a room for a night or two.

It doesn't take long and an argument

between two of Hein's and Steffen's

men begins. The matter is completely

trivial and banal, but the built-up

tension between them and the general

feeling of hostility leads to lots of

yelling and screaming. The characters

It's near dusk when they arrive at the

can interfere and try to settle the

matter peacefully. Whoever acts as

mediator needs to win an Opposed

Test (their WP vs. the mediator's Fel)

to settle the matter. Include bonuses

as appropriate. If the mediator fails

three times in a row, a thrown beer

mug hits one of the two peasants on

the head and kicks off a huge brawl.

Egill, Hein and Steffen stay out of the

whole mess.

The Burgomaster will offer them free

food and lodging at the Black Boar, 2s

per day for working as “Schlichter” and

looking into the various arguments that

disrupt daily life in Nordfels. In addition

to that he is also willing to give 1GC for

every matter they manage to settle in

an orderly and peaceful fashion, and if

that should fail 1GC for every matter

that is brought before the

“Marktgericht”. The “Marktgericht” is

how legal matters are handled in

Nordfels. The Burgomaster presides as

judge, while the accused and the

accuser deliver their statements. There

hasn’t been a Marktgericht in over 9

months in Nordfels. He believes that if

he could show that Justice is still

strong in Nordfels people might be

more inclined to work together as a

community again. A successful haggle

test can increase their daily pay to 3s

per day or the bonus to 2GC. Once the

matter is settled, the Burgomaster will

leave like most other customers have

already done. The characters can

choose to go to their rooms or stay and

drink with Egill and his friends. If they

manage to drink the remaining

customers under the table they gain a

+10 Fel bonus on interactions while in

Nordfels. If they don’t, it’s -5% Fel for

being such a wuss.

If the characters decide to not get

involved, they will only have to dodge

the occasional thrown chair or mug

(Improvised Weapon). If they do get

involved and do not lose, they gain

some respect (+10% on Fel rolls

towards the town folk). If they should

even wound somebody fatally, the

brawl stops. They have properly

scared the peasants (-10% on Fel,

+10% on Intimidate).

Either way, the Burgomaster enters the

Inn shortly afterwards. If the characters

have prevented the brawl, Egill will tell

him about it and the Burgomaster will

ignore the other peasants and address

the characters. Skip the next

paragraph .

Otherwise, the Burgomaster will give a

short speech trying to appeal to the

peasant’s sense of community. He

wants an end to the infighting and

mistrust that has dominated everyday

life since Karel's untimely demise. He'll

be heckled and interrupted by all kinds

of drunken accusations of corruption,

stupidity and insults to his manhood by

whoever is still left conscious. The

Burgomaster will try to convince the

peasants to agree on somebody to

take over the role of the "Schlichter", a

type of arbitrator that would settle the

arguments amongst the various

factions. Unfortunately, everybody in

Nordfels is believed to be biased or

paid for. Everybody except the

characters…

First day on the Job or

Egill speaks

Before the characters leap into action

by mingling with the lively crowd on the

Marktplatz outside, Egill will take them

aside and tell them a few things about

Nordfels.

These days, Kaufmann and Ostländer

control the entire town. But it wasn’t

always like this. A few years back,

Ostländer used to be the most

influential person here. His

connections to Altdorf, Nuln and the

Sigmarite Church made him the man to

go to, if there was anything you

needed. He’d always get it, for a price.

And it usually wasn’t money he was

after. With the Storm of Chaos this all

changed. His connections dried up for

some reason and when the Greenskins

attacked and killed the herds and

destroyed the fields, we had to face

some pretty hard times. We lost a lot of

children and elderly that winter. The

Kaufmann suddenly showed up with

goods and food. Nobody knows how

he did it, but he somehow managed to

put us back on some trade routes and

got us through the hard times. He also

got himself filthy rich that way, if not in

gold then at least in favours and debts.

Ever since then Kaufmann and

Ostländer have been competing; rivals

for control over this town, trying to

drive each other out. They don’t get

their own hands dirty of course, they

have their loyals. The people in

Nordfels never liked this plotting and

scheming going between those two.

But what can you do? Anyway, when

Karel suddenly turned up dead, people

got angry. Like the ones you saw

sitting at the bar yesterday; people who

are fed up with being some rich men’s

puppets and pawns. Things just got

worse from there. I think, if they don’t

find a scapegoat some time soon…

well… I got a quick getaway ready for

me and you should, too.

This is the place

When the characters leave the Black

Boar, they will find themselves at the

busy centre of Nordfels: the Marktplatz.

Built around a massive stone well, a

great number of shops have been built

as well as an even higher number of

stalls, selling everything from lucky

Ranald charms to rat-on-a-stick.

As is common practice in towns of the

Empire, Nordfels has one main temple

devoted to Sigmar and one smaller

temple for the minor and local deities.

Not all buildings are inhabited

however. Some are mere ruins, while

others have been closed, while the

owner is trying to get repairs done. All

of them show signs of attacks from

marauding chaos forces. The

burgomaster’s house and office is also

located near the Marktplatz. The

houses of the influential Hein

Kaufmann and Steffen Ostländer, on

the other hand are situated on the east

and west side of the town, respectively.

These are the people

The characters shouldn’t have any

trouble getting started in their new job

as Schlichter. The crowd on the

marktplatz is lively, but the separation

between the three factions is still

visible. Certain people explicitly avoid

each other, or just observe each other

from the corner of their eyes.

Nonetheless when the characters

make their way through the crowd,

they will be greeted politely and

respectfully by members of all factions.

Women will smile at them, some men

will even greet them by name (or vice

versa depending on the character’s

sex and preferences). Everybody is

willing to interrupt whatever they’re

doing for some small talk with the

Schlichters. Being simple folk, they do

not have a very wide range of topics

except for the most banal (weather,

distant relatives, news from the

Egill advises the characters to avoid

being seen with either Kaufmann or

Ostländer directly. As that would only

mark them as highly suspicious to

everybody. He has little doubt that they

will both try to send one of their men to

nudge them to do their bidding.

Empire, stories about the War, etc.). All

of them though will at some point

mention in lowered voices that they

know a few things that might be of

interest to the “most revered

Schlichters”.

If the characters show immediate

interest in that, they will lead them to a

small side street and tell them what

they know.

planning to slowly poison Ostländer’s

men with bad goods, and eventually

only his loyals will be able to live in

Nordfels.

Whatever happened to merry

Karel?

If the characters try to investigate the

murder of Karel, they will soon be

pointed to the direction of Gerhard,

Joseph and Franz. They seemed to

have taken Karel’s death the hardest.

They are – as always – sitting in the

Black Boar and playing cards. Like

everybody else in town, they are eager

to help the Schlichters with whatever

they want to know. If Karel is

mentioned, though, they will

immediately fall silent and refuse to

answer any more questions. With

some alcohol and friendliness (Charm

Test - routine) or some angry gazes

(Intimidate Test - routine), they will tell

them their sordid little tale. Although

they do insist to tell them in private, as

they fear others hearing of their secret.

The Rumours

This is a list of rumours that the people

of Nordfels will mention and allude to,

when the talk to the characters in

private.

The Forest:

Greenskins are rumoured to have a

camp there. Wild animals attack

unsuspecting travellers at night.

Chaosbeasts and the restless dead

roam the forest in search for prey they

can torture and damn for all eternity.

Hein Kaufmann:

His business contacts include some

very suspicious characters; outlaws

and free-roaming sorcerers, even

Heinz Gerber of Stirland. The reason

why he can get steady supply of goods

is because he has made a pact with

chaos demons.

As it turns out Karels death is nothing

but an unfortunate accident. A few

days earlier there had been news that

a burglar was making the rounds in

Nordfels, While people were drinking,

dancing, drinking, singing and drinking

at the Black Boar after a hard day’s

work, somebody would sneak into their

houses and steal anything of value

they could find. One night the three of

them, being upstanding citizens,

decided to do their part to make

Nordfels safer. It was quite dark that

night, when they discovered a figure

using a ladder and trying to get into the

second storey window of somebody

else’s house. They proceeded to attack

the burglar and dragged him to the

Marktplatz. When finally some light fell

on the burglar’s face, the three

discovered to their shock and surprise

that not only had the man died under

inexplicable circumstances but the

burglar turned out to be no other than

Steffen Ostländer:

He was first to place guards in front of

his house, because he has a very dark

secret. His home is haunted, as you

can tell by the strange sounds that can

be heard some nights. There are

always people delivering things like

food, drink and the like to him but he

lives alone. He prefers the company of

men, and is afraid of women.

Threats from outside

The competition between Kaufmann

and Ostländer will soon move to open

fighting in the streets. Ostländer will

call in the Witch Hunters from Altdorf to

take control of Nordfels. Kaufmann is

Karel, the Halfling entertainer. They left

to get help, but when they returned

(the following day), his body had

already been found. Afterwards, it

turned out that Karel was merely trying

to see his secret lover Sieglinde who

was working as a nanny in that house.

Since the watchdog was quite rabid

and quite blind, Karel decided to come

in through the window. The three were

afraid of coming forward with what

really happened, as they knew that the

people in Nordfels were not in a very

forgiving mood these days.

have to enter his house. Ostländer’s

loyals refuse to tell the Schlichters

anything – not that they actually know

that much to begin with.

Steffen Ostländer lives in a very

spacious house in the western half of

Nordfels, only a few blocks away from

the Marktplatz. Unlike most other

buildings, his house shows little to no

signs of taking any damage during the

attacks. The house has two stories, as

well as a tall roof on which a large flag

of the Empire proudly rests.

Should the characters probe and

question this story, some more

embarrassing details will emerge:

• they were kicked out of the

Black Boar for being completely

drunk, broke and rowdy

• the ladder Karel used was a

small box, and the second

storey window was in fact on the

ground floor

• the fact that the burglar was

very small and constantly

claiming he was just Karel the

Entertainer was interpreted as a

shrewd trick by the burglar

• they did in fact beat him to

death, although it was an

accident as their punches and

kicks would have merely

incapacitated a grown man

• the reason why they left Karel’s

body there the whole night was

because they had passed out a

few blocks away from the

Marktplatz

There are always two guards in front of

Ostländer’s house. If they are not busy

looking grimly at random passers-by

while standing in front of the front door,

they sit at a small table next to it

playing the very popular Hosenrucken-

card game. They have very strict order

not to let anybody into the house at all,

while Ostländer is away. Only people

in his company are allowed to enter.

Attempts to bribe or otherwise

persuade them are Very Hard. But

since the job is very boring and dull,

any attempt to distract them or lure one

of them away is Easy.

There is also a back door, which the

characters can use to sneak into the

building. Two sleeping dogs, tied to the

wall with very heavy chains, are

guarding it though. It takes a

successful Perception Test (Routine

during the day, Average at night) to

assess that they are pretty dangerous

(cuts and abrasions, where their collars

are and the thickness of the chains).

The characters need to pass a Stealth

Test (Hard) to get past them unnoticed.

The dogs sleep very lightly and are

very jumpy.

They have been struggling with their

guilty conscience ever since, and are

willing to accept whatever kind of

amends the Schlichters deem

necessary, to avoid being subject to

show trial on the Marktplatz.

It goes without saying that the

characters should wait until Ostländer

has left his house and went to the

Black Boar or otherwise away before

they try to get inside. If the characters

The Alchemist Situation

In order to find out more about

Ostländer’s secret, the characters will

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: